What May Come
by Tajjas
Summary: Stopping at a station for minor repairs leads to trouble when the Christa and part of her crew go missing.
1. Into Darkness

**What May Come**

_Author's notes: In case anyone was wondering, no one in the crew of the Christa belongs to me. If you were under the impression any of them did, I have some land in Florida you might want to take a look at. A few places/species have been stolen from other sci-fi series. Original characters, however, are mine so please don't use them without permission._

_Please note that it has been awhile since I have seen Space Cases, and I have read a lot of fanfiction since then. I'm trying to keep to what actually happened in the series, but it is possible that some of the details I remember are actually from stories I have read. If I do end up needing some details that I remember were from stories, I will ask first and credit the author. If I have used something from a story you wrote and did not ask/credit you, please let me know and I will either remove the details or give appropriate credit. I can guarantee it wasn't done out of maliciousness; my head just turned your fanfiction into SC universe fact. That said, on with the story._

Chapter 1: Into Darkness

Goddard stared at the empty dock with a frown. Around them, repairs, refueling, and a hundred other small tasks continued on docked ships of all shapes and sizes, no one paying attention to the three figures standing near the post denoting M-21.

"Hey, I thought you were the one with the amazing sense of direction," Harlan demanded of the young Andromedan beside him. "Now we're going to have to spend all day trying to figure out where the Christa is."

"It sh-should be here," Radu protested. "This is wh-where we left it, I'm sure."

"Well, it's not here, so obviously there's a couple wires twisted under those curly ears. Figures, we're stuck with an And—"

"Enough, Mr. Band," Goddard cut him off. "Radu is right, this is the dock number where the Christa was. She just isn't here."

"M-maybe they needed to move her somewhere," Radu suggested.

"Yeah, but why?" Harlan asked. "The Christa isn't any bigger than the rest of the ships in here…there's plenty of room. And it's not like she needed major repairs or something. So why would they move her? And why didn't Suzee or Bova or somebody stay here to tell us where they went?"

Radu shook his head in helplessness.

"I don't know, gentlemen," Goddard said, "but I intend to find out." He headed for the director's office, the control center for this portion of the Triiad docking station.

"Can I help you?" the creature sitting in the receptionist's desk asked.

"I just had a question. Our ship was docked in bay M-21, and it seems to have been relocated. Could you tell me where it was moved to?"

"M-21?"

"That's right."

It consulted a screen with characters in some unrecognizable language. "M-17…19…20…ah, M-21. Ah. Your ship has been impounded."

"What?" Harlan and Radu exclaimed at once.

"Your ship has been impounded," it repeated more slowly.

"No, we heard you…what—impounded by whom?" Goddard asked.

"I'm sorry, I'm not at liberty to give out that information."

"Not at lib—look, that is our ship! We certainly have the right to know who took it."

"Do you have written proof of ownership?"

"What?" Goddard's mind raced. They didn't technically own the ship, but… "Not with us, of course, it's all on board."

"Well, that does present a problem, I'm afraid. Without proof of ownership you do not have any rights to information about the ship from this office. You'll have to go elsewhere."

"Can just you tell me what happened to the people onboard?" Goddard asked. "The rest of our crew was doing repairs while we located parts; they should be able to confirm who we are."

"I'm sorry; no information about crew members is stored in our database."

"You have to have something," Harlan protested. "They wouldn't have just let you take the Christa!"

"I'm sorry, this office deals with ships only. We have no interest in crew manifests."

Goddard frowned. "Well, who would have this information?"

"If you think your crew protested, you could always check with security. Maybe they were detained. Other than that, we really don't have anyone who could help you."

"Thanks," Goddard ground out. "Where is the security office?"

"Three levels down at the far end of the station."

"Thank you." It wasn't very heartfelt, but then, Goddard wasn't feeling very thankful. The three of them headed immediately for security, although until they left the bay Radu kept casting quick glances backward in the hopes that the Christa would suddenly reappear.

As soon as they entered the security office, they were met with a deafening babble as a mass of aliens crowded the counter and filled the room, all demanding information about their own concerns. There was no formal line, and clearly getting service was a matter of who could get to the attendants first. Radu managed to filter enough of the noise that he could concentrate on forcing them a path to the counter…neither Harlan or Commander Goddard could have moved aside half of the people in their way. The closer they got, however, the worse the noise since everyone was shouting directly towards the person behind the desk, and by the time they actually got there his face was pinched from the pain. "Hurry, please."

"Be out of here soon, buddy," Harlan promised, moving to stand between him and a woman with a voice frighteningly like Aieeee's. It wasn't much of an improvement, but at least it was something.

"Excuse me? Excuse me!" Goddard repeated a little louder. "EXCUSE ME!"

A figure from behind the counter turned to him with a bored look on his face. "Yes?"

"We're looking for information on the crew of the Christa? It was impounded earlier."

"If it was impounded, you'll need to speak to Station Services."

"I will later, but right now I need some information on the crew. Has anyone from the Christa, dock M-21, been detained today."

As though it was the hardest thing he'd done all day, the man punched in the information on his console. "There have been no detainees from M-21 in the past three solar days."

"What about their names?"

"We do not track detainees by name, only by ship."

Goddard sighed. "Station Services you said? And where would that be?" After they exited the office, he sent Radu back to the dock, just in case Miss Davenport sent one of the others to meet them there. He wasn't thrilled with splitting up what was currently left of his crew—especially since if Station Services was anything like Security had been having someone who could force his way through would come in handy—but the more of them who went to the services office the more impact they would have, and of the two Harlan was more likely to get into trouble on his own. Anyway, by the look on Radu's face he still hadn't recovered from the noise in the security office.

"Did they do this on purpose?" Harlan asked as they walked into the one office on the station that couldn't possibly be farther from the Security if it tried.

"At this point I wouldn't be surprised," Goddard muttered. Unlike the previous office they'd been in, this one was neat and orderly, and they were told to take seats and wait for the receptionist to call them. "Hopefully one of the others will meet up with Radu and all of this will have been for nothing."

"You sure you should have sent him off by himself?" Harlan asked. "I mean, I know he's not going to get lost, but…"

"He'll be all right." The teenager had become a lot more concerned about Radu since Catalina and Suzee had switched places, Goddard noted. It hadn't just the shock of being trapped on a planet with no one but each other, more that they had actually lost someone. Not permanently, but… Apparently Harlan had considered what life would be like without his teammates and the idea of life without the Andromedan hadn't been as pleasant as he'd originally thought. He turned towards the counter as their number was called, moving to speak with the woman. "We're looking for information on the crew of the Christa."

"Oh, we don't handle crew manifests here, you'll need to go to Secur—"

"Been there, done that," Harlan interrupted. "They said to come here since the Christa was impounded."

"Ah, an impound we will have information on. Docking number and reason for impound please?"

"Dock M-21, and we don't know," Goddard responded. "That's one of the things we're trying to figure out."

"Well, let me check. Do you have proof of ownership?"

"It is onboard with the rest of the crew," he responded shortly.

"Hm. Most irregular. However…" she entered the information in the computer. "Well, it seems there was some dispute about ownership. A claim has been made that your ship was stolen."

"What?" Harlan demanded indignantly. "We didn't steal the Christa, she's ours!"

"Well, the matter has been turned over to the Spung Empire for jurisdiction."

"The Spung Empire?" Goddard demanded. "What do they have to do with anything?"

"The person claiming that your ship belongs to him is a citizen of the Spung Empire. You will have to take up your request with them."

"W-wait," Harlan said before she could turn away. "People can just claim a ship is theirs and tow it away? They don't have to prove anything?"

"He had a warrant from the Spung government for the ship. It is not our business to interfere."

"And the ship is already gone?" Goddard asked. "We only left it three—four—hours ago!"

"According to my records, impound was made three solar hours ago, and 0.5 solar hours ago a Killcruiser arrived to escort your ship back to Spung space."

"Back to—we aren't from there, and we didn't steal the Christa!" Harlan repeated.

"Then you will have to take the matter up with the Spung government."

"What about the crew?" Goddard asked.

The woman shrugged. "I imagine they were turned over to the Spung with the ship. If security had no records of them, then they did not attempt to leave it after the impounding."

"But they had papers too," Goddard protested, forgetting for a moment that they technically didn't. "And the Christa's android could have confirmed they were the real crew!"

"Look, you are clearly not understanding our position," the woman snapped. "The Spung Empire is a large, influential sphere. It is not our place to meddle in their decisions. They claimed your ship was stolen. If you have proof it was not, you will have to go to them and sort the matter out."

"Meaning you people were too cowardly to stand up to them when they kidnapped innocent travelers," Harlan translated. "You just—"

Goddard dropped his hand, interrupting the teenager before the woman could storm away. "Fine, we'll take the matter to them. Exactly how are we supposed to get there, since they've just stolen our ship?"

"I'm afraid that is your problem, gentlemen. Now if you'll excuse me, there are others waiting."

Harlan looked numb as they exited the office. "The Spung took them…just like that?"

"Apparently so, Mr. Band, now we need to start figuring out a way to get them back."

"Man, Radu's gonna freak."

Goddard sighed. He suspected the same thing. He had no idea what Radu had been through during the war or what he'd heard stories of, but there was no doubt that the young Andromedan had a deep and abiding terror of the Spung. "Our first problem is going to be figuring out where they took the others and getting there. If we can get to the Christa we might be able to get her free."

"Somehow I don't think anyone is going to be real helpful," Harlan muttered. "They'll probably tell us to go ask the Spung."

"Unfortunately, you're probably right." He checked the cash pouch he carried. "Well, fortunately we didn't find all of the supplies we were looking for…I imagine we have enough here to rent a room for a few nights, or maybe get seats on a shuttle."

"We could go back to the vendors and cancel our orders, get some money back. That will help."

"Good idea, Mr. Band. We'll go collect Mr. Radu, and then make a round of the shops. Then we'll find a room and start making plans. I know—" he put in Harlan opened his mouth to protest— "that you would rather ride off to the rescue now. So would I. But we're going into Spung space without a ship of our own and no way of knowing where they're being taken. We need a plan. A good one."


	2. No Good News

**What May Come**

_Please see chapter 1 for author's notes._

Chapter 2: No Good News

Radu leaned against the post announcing the designation of this particular docking station and tried not to look as miserable as he felt. He'd had a very bad feeling since they'd come upon the empty station where the Christa should be, and somehow he didn't think Harlan and Goddard's trip to Station Services would yield good results. He'd much rather be with them than here, alone, but…well, Goddard had to go, and Harlan…. The last thing they needed was to lose another crew member, and Harlan would never have been able to find his way back to this place on his own.

"Help!"

He spun at the cry and found that a support beam of one of the near ships most heavily in need of repair was slowly sliding outward. When the ship finally overbalanced and went down on that end, the other beams would snap out and be sent flying all over the bay. He was moving before he even noticed it, throwing all of his strength against the collapsing beam to hold it in place. A team was already working frantically to bring in another support, but he could feel himself sliding backwards with the beam and knew they weren't going to get it in place in time.

"Radu!" A second figure joined him, adding more weight to keep the beam from sliding backwards. "What happened?"

"I don't know, someone just yelled for help." He noted that Goddard was on the other side, and while he doubted either human was actually doing much good against the several-ton weight slowly shoving the beam outwards, having them there made him feel better.

Against all odds, the second support beam made it into place before the first finally went down, and the ship settled onto the new support without causing any more damage. "…mn idiots not fully checking the connections. Lucky it only slid out and didn't collapse at once, nothing would have saved it then." A tall Pylian, the one who'd headed up the crew putting in the new support, moved to the trio. "Nice work Ashrak," he said with a nod to Radu. "You two also. If you hadn't slowed that beam down, we'd never have gotten the other one into place in time."

"Um, thank you, but…I'm not Ashrak. I'm Radu."

"Radu?"

"It's my n-name…you called me Ashrak, but I'm not him."

The man frowned at Radu's expression. "It's not a name, it's…You seriously aren't an Ashrak?"

"What are you, blind?" Harlan asked in amazement. "He's Andromedan!"

Before Radu could stop him, the man reached out and pushed the hair off one of his ears. "Well, I'll be. You really aren't." He shook his head. "Uh, sorry about that. Mistaken identity. Thanks, though, all of you. Name's Kyldarian." He bowed slightly. "You guys ever need a job reference here on the docks, let me know. I run one of the crews."

Goddard gave him their thanks, and then the three of them moved into one of the side corridors. "We didn't find out exactly where the others are, but we did get some information. It isn't good."

Radu winced slightly at the blunt statement, and the fact that Harlan wouldn't meet his eyes worried him. "Was there an accident?"

"No. It seems as though the Spung Empire has some connections here."

"The Spung have them?" He could hear the rise in pitch in his voice, and his mind began to supply frightening pictures. Some were from his imagination, what could be done to his friends when the Spung got to them, others…

"That's what it looks like," Goddard agreed. "Apparently one of them showed up, showed a couple false documents claiming the Christa was his, and just hauled her and the others away."

"The station won't do anything to offend the Spung, so no one even tried to help," Harlan said bitterly. "We don't even know where they're being taken."

"We h-have to do something!" Radu insisted. "We have to find them!"

"And we will," Goddard assured him. "But right now, we need to go back and cancel our orders with the merchants. Then we need to get a room—a cheap one. We need to conserve our money as best we can; we may need it to buy passage on a transport into Spung or for bribes."

"Bribes?"

"Information, Mr. Band. I suspect the only way we are going to get any help here is to make it worth these people's while."

Radu wasn't impressed with the merchants as they made their way back around to everyone they'd bought from. None were very sympathetic, and most had no-refund policies. Goddard had managed to browbeat a couple of them—the policy hadn't been clearly stated, the person who'd sold to them had said no such thing, and so on—but they ended up retrieving a lot less currency than they'd hoped for. Finding a room was easier, and if the pitter-patter of little rat feet in the walls didn't do much for Radu's nerves, it wasn't worth mentioning to Harlan or the commander. They had bigger worries. A thump drew his attention back to his crewmembers.

Harlan kicked the wall again for emphasis, noting that Radu had pulled himself out of whatever half-trance he was in to look at him curiously, while Goddard simply shook his head. "Someone has to know something! We just have to keep asking until they tell us."

It wasn't the first time he'd made that suggestion, and Goddard finally responded from where he was sitting on one of the other fold-down bunks. "And then what? We'll hear a hundred conflicting stories—if we're lucky—from people who weren't there and are guessing at best and being intentionally misleading at worst. Or, if we aren't lucky, they'll make us pay for the same information. We could waste our entire cash reserves and still be no better off than we are now. We need to find someone who is familiar with the way things work on this station and can help us get the information we need."

"D-do they have people like that?" Radu asked.

"On a station as mired in bureaucracy as this one seems to be, as well as under the thumb of the Spung Empire, I'm sure there are several people who specialize in knowing people. The trouble is going to be finding one."

"And paying for them," Harlan added gloomily. "It sounds like we're talking about black market information, and that's never cheap." He gave up kicking the wall and moved to the bunk beside Radu's.

The Andromedan was curious about what his human friend knew about black markets—Andromedans had a hard time with the idea of personal ownership so although he recognized the term from classes the idea was incredibly alien—but he sensed this wasn't the time to ask. "How will we find these people?"

"Ask, I suppose," Goddard said with a sigh. "We'll probably get a few false leads, but it'll probably be better than if we start asking which direction a Killcruiser took our ship. Unfortunately," he glanced at the safe where he'd stored their money, "I think we'd better get jobs tomorrow."

"What? How are we going to find them if we've got to work?"

"Mr. Band, we also have to eat, and pay for this room, and pay for this person's services once we find him. The money we have just won't cover it all. Now, I'm not suggesting that we all work full time, but we're going to need some kind on incoming currency."

Radu frowned. He wasn't very good at engineering or most other school subjects, but… "I could probably get a job on the docks."

"That's a good idea. Kyldarian said he'd give recommendations. The three of us will go down there tomorrow and see what we can come up with."

"Maybe you shouldn't work, Commander," Harlan interrupted. "You're probably going to have to meet with these information brokers—they won't take Radu and me seriously. You could hunt them tomorrow with what money we have, while the two of us try to get jobs. The room is already paid for, right?"

"Right, although we're going to need food. Nothing fancy, just something to last us for the next few days. We should probably get that now; if you two are going to start working the docks tomorrow you'll need the energy. And mention to Kyldarian that I might also be looking for a job in the next few days. Assuming we do find someone who can help us relatively quickly, the fees might be high enough that we all need to be working."

Harlan nodded. "Maybe we should go back to Station Services. We were so upset about the Spung that we never asked which Killcruiser it was."

Radu nodded. "M-maybe they can give us the name of the person who claimed the Christa, too. I-I'm pretty sure Spung keep good records. We might be able to find him."

"That's a good plan, gentlemen," Goddard agreed, glancing at the chronometer on the wall. "We'll take some of the money with us and pick up food on the way back."

A short hike later, and they were back in front of a plain sign indicating Station Services. With a curious glance around the neat office, Radu slipped into his familiar spot at the helmsman's right shoulder. "Why is it so empty here? Not like Security…"

"What, you're complaining?"

"N-not complaining, but…it's different."

"Probably because it's things," Harlan replied as they waited for someone to acknowledge the commander. "Security is all about people, and they sure don't want much to do with people around here. This is all about ships, so it's nice and orderly—they'd lose money otherwise. Like the docking station didn't care about crews, only the ships and cargo, and the merchants just want their money and don't care about the people involved. I don't think this is a very traveler-friendly station."

Radu nodded at that, and the two fell silent as a receptionist finally approached. "Can I help you?"

"I need information on the Christa," Goddard began. "It was impounded and taken by the Spung earlier; they claimed it was stolen."

"I'm sorry, you'll have to take the matter up with the Spung Empire."

"Man, they got that on some kind of playback," Harlan muttered, ignoring Goddard's dark look.

"We plan to," Goddard explained. "But since we didn't steal our ship, we don't have any idea who might have taken it. Do you have the name of the person who claimed it was stolen? Or of the Killcruiser that took it away?"

"Do you have proof of ownership?"

"Onboard the ship." From the way he said it, Radu suspected the commander had repeated that line several times in the past. "The names, please?"

"Well, according to our records, your ship has been claimed by Warlord Galzaz, and escorted away by the Killcruiser Ch'cov."

"How convenient they were in the area," Harlan muttered. Radu suspected he was the only one who heard the young human—probably a good thing.

"Thank you for you help," Goddard said, turning to go and motioning for his crewmembers to precede him. "Now we have names. Let's get dinner and some rest, and tomorrow we'll start searching."

Dinner was nothing special, and none of them had much to talk about so they headed back to their rooms for the night. Radu glanced over at Harlan as they settled into their bunks. The human's breathing, at least, was a familiar sound, but he'd gotten used to the Uranusian's snoring on the other side. Goddard had dropped off to sleep almost immediately, although Harlan was still awake. Not for much longer though, if he judged the rhythm of his heart right. The sounds of the station were so different than the Christa's…it was like being back at the StarAcademy, where even earmuffs hadn't been able to keep noises from awakening him at random points during the nights. He'd learned to block a lot of them eventually—especially when he realized that the boys on either side of him were deliberately setting compupads to play irritating messages late at night at a volume only he would hear—but the first few weeks had been miserable. At least his roommate had moved out and no one else had moved in…if anyone had suspected how much the noises had bothered him he'd never have slept. It was even noisier here, he noted absently, wishing he had earmuffs of some sort. Apparently the docks had a night shift, and the machinery wasn't overly quiet. A pillow caught him in the forehead, and he turned to glare at Harlan. "What?"

"I asked if you were okay. Shifting around too much over there to be sleeping."

There was genuine concern in his voice, and Radu felt bad for snapping at him. "Y-yeah, I'm fine. I just can't sleep."

"Hey, we'll get them back. Besides, Suzee's probably already figured out a way to blow up the Killcruiser by remote control and they'll be back by tomorrow morning."

Radu knew better than that, and he knew the human did too, but he appreciated the effort. "Yeah, r-right. M-maybe the Christa could put Miss Davenport back in the computer and she could go give the Killcruiser a virus."

"Teach it to faint," Harlan said with a snicker.

"O-or give demerits instead of firing."

Harlan laughed at that, raising the pitch of his voice. "Christa, you will be given 5 demerits for escaping the Spung Empire! You have detention, young lady!" Laughter died down, and he turned his head to face the Andromedan. "Look, close your eyes and go to sleep. We'll get it figured out tomorrow...we'll get them back."

He didn't fall asleep immediately, but concentrating on his crewmates' heartbeats helped mask the rest of the station sounds, and before he knew it Goddard was gripping his shoulder and asking him to wake up. Harlan was already up and moving, and he flushed to realize that he'd managed to fall asleep so deeply that they were actually having trouble getting him up. "S-sorry."

"Get cleaned up and grab yourself some breakfast. I'm going to get an early start on the concourse and see if I can speak to some of the smaller merchants before too many customers get there. You two do the best you can about finding work, and I will meet you by M-21 at 1800. I think the equivalent time here is the standard shift-change. Stay together if you can."

He left as Harlan polished off the remains of his breakfast and Radu entered the washroom to get cleaned up. The two of them reached the dock they'd left previously just before the next shift—the one they wanted to join—was scheduled to start, and set about searching for Kyldarian. "He r-ran a crew," Radu pointed out. "They must have a record somewhere."

"We've just got to find it," Harlan muttered.

As it turned out, he found them. "Didn't expect to see you two so soon," a voice called from behind them as they approached the main office. "Your ship in for repairs?"

"Not exactly," Harlan replied. "Look…were you serious about giving us recommendations? Cause we could use jobs, at least for awhile."

"Are you serious?" He motioned them out of the path of ground vehicles. "What's your story?"

"Complicated," Harlan said with a shrug. "Short version…the Spung took our ship, and we need money to help get it back."

"Damn, you've got some tough enemies." Kyldarian shrugged. "Well, can't do much about that, but I could use a couple extra hands. Temporary, though…there's a pair that need fill-ins or they'll lose their position. It's not much to either of them, but they're good workers and I'd rather not lose them because some paper-pusher says I have to fire anyone who is gone more than a tenday shifts in one tenmonth regardless of reason."

"What happened to them?" Harlan asked.

"Oh, nothing on the job. One of them got himself hurt on some stupid stunt and his partner decided to take a couple tendays off as well to work on some project. They're good enough to write their own tickets when it comes to stuff like that, working here just pays the bills. So are you in?"

"Th-that's great," Radu assured him. "Thank you."

"No problem. Either of you ever work loading docks before?" He nodded as they both shook their heads. "Fair enough. Not a lot too it...we move objects from one place to another. Loading and unloading. I'll work with you for a couple days, show you the ropes, and then you can pull from the schedule. Um…" he handed them badges. "You punch in and out with these at one of the stations." He indicated a stand by the office door. "The chits collect the hours you work, and you can use them at any of the station shops. They'll deduct directly from whatever your current balance is. Don't lose the chits; replacing them is annoying and you'll lose whatever money was on them when you lost it."

"Won't there be a problem if these belong to your other workers? I mean, I don't think their names are Harlan and Radu."

"No names…the cards just track credit amounts. Like I said, don't lose them." A tone sounded, and he nodded to the teenagers. "Punch in, gentlemen, it's time for work."

The work was hard, Radu noted as they went, but not really difficult. Certainly not a lot of thinking involved. Harlan had shown some ability with the loader mechsuits and so had been using them to move crates, while Radu simply lifted and carried. They were more awkward than heavy, but by the end of the day even his muscles were protesting. They had to get lunch at one of the stands since neither had thought to pack anything and spent some time discussing where the Spung might be planning to take the Christa since Warlord Shank was still with Pezu as far as they knew, but other than that they had no time to talk. The Andromedan shied away from thinking about his missing friends as he worked, instead concentrated on all the different races around the docks. The Andromedan government did not think highly of exposure to different cultures for their young—the first time he'd seen races other than his own except in holofilms in class and on tri-d had been when he'd stepped into the StarAcademy. Seeing so many people of so many different shapes and forms was exciting, in a way, and he was glad for anything that kept his mind away from the Spung.

"Hsst! Radu!" He turned towards Harlan, only to receive a sharp, "Don't look! I know you can hear me. Is it just me, or has Kyldarian been giving us some really weird looks since lunchtime? Scratch your forehead if the answer is yes."

Radu wondered idly how he was supposed to scratch anything while both arms were wrapped around a crate, but he couldn't really answer the question anyway. His attention had been elsewhere. Resolving to pay more attention to his immediate surroundings, he did his best to approximate a shrug while making it look as if he was shifting the crate and then continued walking. By the end of the shift he still hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary, but he was willing to trust the human's instincts on this one. The noise was downing out his. "Should we ask him about it?" he asked under his breath.

"He'll just say he wasn't," Harlan predicted. "Come on, let's go punch out and meet Commander Goddard."

Judging by the look on the commander's face, he hadn't had much luck, Radu decided. "H-hi, Commander."

"Hello, gentlemen. How was work?"

"Went okay," Harlan answered with a shrug. We get paid by the day, so that's something."

"That may be more important than you'd think," Goddard replied. "I've been trying to track down shuttles into Spung space and see if anyone else has had this same problem, but I haven't had much luck on either front. The only ships that do into Spung space are well-armed traders who don't need new crewmembers, and apparently no one talks about spaceship theft around here."

"They can't really afford to," a new voice said, and all three spun in surprise to see Kyldarian standing behind them. "The Triiad don't want problems with the Spung…if you push this, the three of you are going to disappear too."

"They took our friends!" Harlan exclaimed.

Kyldarian glanced around, but his outburst had apparently gone unnoticed. "Look…I owe you. You probably saved a lot of lives yesterday. I've seen those supports punch through the station hull and suck out a crew and a half before the autoseal kicks in, and that's nothing compared to the mess when they punch through groups of people."

"Do you know someone we could talk to?" Goddard asked.

"If I was in your situation…you might want to talk to Jacie and Aslinn. They're part of my regular crew—the ones you two are filling in for. They're part-time salvagers on their off days…the only ones that regularly go into Spung space. And they sometimes bring more than sheet metal out. They're good people and they have contacts most don't…they might be able to help you out."

"Thought you said one of them was hurt?" Harlan asked.

"Aslinn broke his arm about a tenday and a half ago. Probably almost healed up by now…like I said, they had some project they were working on."

"Where would we find them?" Goddard asked.

"Mech labs on level two—they've got a locker rental in one of them; that's where they spend free time after work. Ask at the office, they should be able to tell you which one. Just…I didn't give you this information, all right? And you can't keep talking out in the open like you have been…definitely don't ask on the concourse!"

Goddard nodded. "Thanks for your help."

"See you tomorrow," Harlan offered as he and Radu followed Goddard out of the bay. "Commander, are we going to do what he says? Go meet these guys?"

"I honestly don't see that we have another option," came the quiet reply. "Radu…could you tell anything about him? Did his heartbeat start racing at any point?"

"N-no," Radu responded after a moment. "It got faster when he was telling us not to talk about what happened, but it never sounded like he was lying. I've n-never really talked to a Pylian though…I might be wrong."

"Whoa, you can hear when people are lying?" Harlan demanded.

"I can hear changes in the way their hearts beat and in their breathing…it's n-not exact, especially with strangers."

"Well, we're going to have to try something," Goddard responded. "So I guess we're heading to level two."

For once they didn't have any trouble getting information out of a receptionist—he just gave them a bored look and indicated with one of his three arms that they should go to the lab at the end of the corridor. Upon entering, they found a man completely covered in some sort of smock and with a hood over his head doing something complicated with a welding torch. The reason for the protection became apparent as the surface of the boz he was working on suddenly crackled with electricity, showering him with sparks and what looked like currents looking for a place to land.

"Hello?" Harlan tried.

The figure shut down the torch and turned so his face mask was towards them. "Can I help you?"

"We're looking for Jacie and Aslinn," Goddard said. "Do you know where they might be?"

The machine was shut down, and the figure lifted off the hood and face mask to reveal an Andromedan no older than Radu. "I'm Jacie. What do you need?"


	3. Better and Better

**What May Come**

_Please see chapter 1 for author's notes._

Chapter 3: Better and Better

Harlan stared at the figure in front of them. He was a little smaller than Radu—maybe an inch or two—but he had the same curly blond hair down his back. His ears were mostly hidden by the headband pinning his hair back, but there was no doubt that the lines extending up from his jaw led into spirals.

"I said, 'What do you need?'" the boy repeated a little louder.

"Um," Goddard shook his head. "We were told you might be able to help us. You and someone named Aslinn?"

"He's my partner." The boy didn't relax his guard. "It might help if you told me what the problem was."

"Our sh-ship got stolen by the Spung," Radu tried to explain. "The rest of our crew was onboard."

The boy rolled his eyes, tossing the hood onto the table and shrugging off the cloaking material. "What makes you think we might be able to help?"

He didn't wear protective gloves, Harlan noted absently, before focusing on the question. "A guy on the docks said you guys might be able to give us a hand." Although he wasn't sure what a kid would be able to do against the Spung Empire.

The boy muttered something under his breath that Harlan couldn't make out, and then studied them for a moment before shaking his head. "Give me a minute." He stowed the cloak and the box—whatever it was—in one of the lockers, and then moved towards the crew. "Come on, no point in you telling the story twice. 'Sides, Az curses a lot more creatively than I do."

Assuming 'Az' was Aslinn, Harlan fell into step behind Goddard and hoped that whoever they were meeting was this kid's mentor. And preferably not another Andromedan… after two years of dealing with Radu he suspected that he could deal with this other kid, but having an adult Adromedan around would bother him. Probably a lot. He glanced at Radu to see how he was handling their guide, and found him staring curiously while trying to look like he wasn't doing so. For his part, Jacie seemed to be mostly ignoring them, cutting through the corridors with practiced ease. "Where are we going?" Harlan finally asked.

"After I pick up dinner, back to our quarters. Better to talk there. You people like pizza?"

"You like pizza?" Radu asked in surprise.

Harlan grinned. They'd long since established that while Radu could eat most human foods, he disliked the majority of them.

"They've got some good toppings here. I'll get one of the kind I like—you probably will too—and one of some human kind. That should be enough for all of us. Aslinn's never very hungry after seeing the doctor. What kind do you two want?" he asked, glancing back at the commander.

"Just cheese," Goddard replied, raising an eyebrow at the teenager.

"Yeah, cheese is good."

"All right." They reached what appeared to be a food court. "Wait here, I'll be back in a moment." He ignored the money that Goddard tried to hand him and disappeared into the crowd.

"I hope Kyldarian knew what he was talking about," Goddard muttered, staring after him.

"Maybe he's this guy Aslinn's assistant or something," Harlan suggested. "He's barely as old as we are."

"Believe me, Mr. Band, I noticed. I don't think he—"

Radu shook his head, waving his hand to get him to stop speaking. "We should wait until we get back to our quarters. He can h-hear us if he wants now."

Harlan glanced around the noisy concourse. "You sure about that? I don't know how anyone could make out much of anything in this mess."

"It's just a matter of concentration."

Harlan didn't have an answer for that, although he did wonder for a few moments how many conversations Radu had overheard that he shouldn't have. He was saved from his thoughts by the return of the Andromedan boy, this time carrying two rectangular boxes.

"Come on, this way." Jacie led them to a residential area slightly nicer than the one they were staying in.

The room they entered was built along the same lines as theirs, although slightly larger—a kitchenette area off to one side, and an entertainment center built into one wall, but instead of fold-down bunks the other wall held two permanent bunk beds with a built-desk underneath them that extended the length of the wall. At least Harlan assumed it was a desk…it was hard to tell what was under the piles of diagrams and compupads and models on it. Other diagrams were tacked up to the walls, and the floor was littered with pillows and a few more diagrams thrown in for good measure. "What do you guys do, diagram every ship that comes through here?"

"I design sensors," Jacie said with a shrug. "Aslinn does most of the work on the power sources. Working the docks pays for our hobbies."

"I thought you did salvage?" Goddard asked.

"Where'd you get that information?"

"We promised we wouldn't tell," Harlan explained.

"Well, we do on occasion, but not enough to pay for everything." He nodded for them to take seats on the stools facing the kitchenette. "Want anything to drink?"

"Water?" Goddard asked, seconded by both members of his crew.

Jacie slid a few bottles across the counter, put the pizza cartons and plates next to them, and then leaned back against one of the shelving units. "Help yourselves."

"You aren't eating?"

"Too early for me, but I don't want to go out again later." The door slid open, and he grinned. "Hey, brother, we've got company."

"No kidding. Who are they and what do they want?"

Harlan stared at the approaching figure—Aslinn, he assumed. He was human, and older than Jacie…by maybe five years. At most. A redhead only an inch or so shorter than Goddard, he wore the same kind of half-sleeved jumpsuit his partner did, although his had the addition of a sling around his neck supporting his right arm.

"My name is Commander Goddard; these are two of my crewmembers, Harlan Band and Radu. Our ship was taken by the Spung, and we heard that you might be able to help us."

"Where'd you get that information?"

"We can't tell you," Goddard responded.

"Really? Well, what's the story?"

That was directed at Jacie, who shrugged. "Don't know, was waiting for you to get back. What's the verdict?"

"I can stop wearing this thing day after tomorrow, and then another tenday of 'light usage' before I get to go back to real work. You get anything done?"

"Not much. Haven't been able to stabilize the power relays. Figure you take a look at it and see if you can come up with some kind of static strip to draw off the extra power."

"That's fair." He glanced at the crew of the Christa, moving to stand next to Jacie. "Sorry, ongoing project. So your ship got stolen by the Spung?"

"Yeah, with some of our crew onboard," Harlan agreed. "Who knows what the Spung will do to them—we have to save them!"

"Where are they taking them?"

Goddard shook his head. "No one could tell us."

"Would tell you, more like," Aslinn commented dryly.

"The person who claimed the ship was W-warlord Galzaz, and the Killcruiser Ch'cov," offered Radu.

"And you think we'll be able to help you?"

"We heard that you had some contacts that might be able to get us some information," Harlan explained, and Aslinn refocused on him.

"A-and if you have a ship and have brought people out before…" Radu added, hope in his voice.

"Contacts? What contacts are we supposed to have?" Jacie asked curiously.

"I don't know, but that's what he told us. Maybe you know someone inside the Spung Empire?" Harlan guessed. That would explain how they had gotten other things out of the empire.

Jacie shrugged in response and then frowned and moved towards the door. "Don't know how that helps get your ship back."

"I spent the day looking for ships non-Spung ships that travel in Spung space," Goddard put in. "All I found were a few well-armed unaffiliated merchants. And apparently yours."

"Damn, I didn't realize anyone had spotted that," Aslinn muttered.

"Huh?" Harlan glanced over at Goddard who was frowning suddenly.

"Well, if you can't help us, I guess we'd better be going." The commander moved to stand.

"Too late," Jacie offered from immediately behind them. "You know way too much that you shouldn't."

"What do you mean?" Harlan asked. "We came to you for help!"

"Yeah, well, that's how a plant works." Aslinn smirked. "We help you, and you shoot us in the back. No thanks. Jace…"

Harlan felt himself jerked upright, and realized that Jacie had a grip on his shoulder while his other hand was wrapped around the commander's upper arm. "What are you doing?"

"For now, locking you up, later depends—don't try it, kid, breaking their necks would mean next to nothing to me."

Harlan caught Radu's stricken look as he backed away. "What…?"

Aslinn did something complicated to a wall panel and electrical beams came down from the ceiling to form a rough enclosure. "Into the cage, please."

Jacie nodded at Radu to enter first, and then tossed Harlan and Goddard after him. Aslinn entered another command and the number of beams doubled, effectively cutting off any entrance. "Here's dinner." Jacie pushed the pizza boxes through. "No telling how long you'll be in there."

"What are you going to do?" Goddard demanded.

"Check out your story, figure out who's trying to trap us."

"We aren't trying to trap you, we need your help!" protested Harlan. This was ridiculous. Two StarDog cadets and one commander trapped by a couple paranoid dock workers… what was wrong with them?

Aslinn shrugged. "Maybe you were set up too. Don't suppose you are to tell us where you got your information now?"

Harlan glanced at the commander, who nodded. "Fine. Kyldarian, down on the docks. He set Radu and Harlan up with jobs, and when he heard what happened he thought you might be able to help."

Aslinn and Jacie exchanged glances, and Aslinn shrugged again. "We'll see. And then we'll decide what to do with you."

"What do you mean, wh-what to do with us?"

"If you're working for the Spung, I've got no issues tossing you out the nearest airlock," Jacie said with a shrug. "If you're working for the Triiad…well, it's the same thing to me, actually. If you're getting played also…it doesn't change the fact that you could get us killed with the 'information' you have."

Goddard threw up his hands. "We're just trying to get help, we aren't working for anyone! Our ship was taken. Dock M-21—check that. Her name is the Christa."

"Don't worry, we will. Jace…"

"Yeah, yeah, deal with Kyldarian."

The two of them exited the room, and Harlan looked over at the other two. Radu had his head cocked to one side, listening to something, and Goddard was glaring at the door. "Now what?"

"I don't know, Mr. Band." He reached out to touch one of the electrical beams and was thrown backwards into the wall. "Not that."

"There aren't any sp-spaces big enough we could slip through," Radu added, studying the cage walls.

Harlan nodded agreement, looking up at the emitters in the ceiling. The cell itself took up a good portion of the back wall…perhaps 10 feet long and 5 or 6 feet deep. "I don't think we can just turn them off, even if we could reach them. This station keeps getting better and better—who the hell builds a holding cell into someone's living quarters?"


	4. Obligations

**What May Come**

_Please see chapter 1 for author's notes._

Chapter 4: Obligations

Goddard looked down at his crewmembers, sitting back against the wall and picking at the two pizzas. It had been hours since Jacie and Aslinn had left them there…hours that they'd sat trapped with no good ideas about how to get free. Radu had boosted him up to one of the emitters and he'd found that Harlan had been right about not being able to shake them loose—he'd tried and been blasted back into the wall even harder than the first time. Radu had tried to brace himself against the wall and push through the bars… that hadn't worked either. Trying to short the bars might have worked…if any of them had a strip of metal on them. They could—carefully—reach through the bars, but there was nothing within reach to grab. He turned and paced back the other direction. What the hell had he been thinking? This was practically a textbook enemy-territory drill, and he'd broken just about every rule possible. He'd taken information from an unknown source—Kyldarian—and then followed it without even making an attempt to verify the man's credentials. He'd gone directly to the person named—Jacie—without doing any research on him, either. He'd then gone back to Jacie's quarters—his quarters!—instead of remaining in neutral territory. And not only had he left no escape route, he'd taken his entire crew along. That meant there was no one who could alert the authorities that something had happened—not that that had done any good so far—and no one who could come help them himself. He was a trained StarDog, and he'd gotten so wrapped up with worry about where half his crew was that he'd completely disregarded the safety of the rest. What kind of commander did that make him?

"Commander…shouldn't you sit down and rest or something?" Harlan asked, interrupting his thoughts. "I mean…whatever they're going to do, even if it's just throwing us out of the airlock, they'll have to let us out of this cage to do it. We can fight them when they try."

"If it's Aslinn, maybe," Goddard agreed, "but—" he glanced at Radu, hoping the boy wouldn't take offence at what he was about to say. "I fought Andromedans during the war. Neither of us stands a chance against Jacie in hand-to-hand combat…even a glancing blow would be crippling, even possibly fatal. I saw the results of an entire squadron who'd run out of rounds for their weapons against a patrol of four once…there were three survivors on each side. You can do the math."

"I've fought Radu a couple times sparring—I'm still all right," the boy protested, glancing over at the Andromedan.

"I hold back a lot, Harlan," Radu admitted. "A-as much as I can. And you sometimes still get bruises. But…if I can get behind him, I might be able to stop him."

"I don't think pinning him would be such a good idea," Goddard warned. Radu wasn't the most coordinated of his students, and trying to hold someone just as strong as he was for a long period of time would be dangerous for all of them.

"No…we—Andromedans—have a n-nerve center below our third vertebrae. If I hit that, I can knock him out."

"That could work. Harlan and I would have to distract him, but we should both be able to stay clear of his fists." Of course, that assumed Jacie's reaction time was no better than Radu's, but that was a chance they would have to take. Harlan was faster than he was… if he was wrong, it would be him and not the teenager who paid the price.

Radu nodded. "If…if you have to, aim for his ears."

"What, like burst his eardrums?"

Goddard nodded at Harlan's question. "It's a disabling move on a human—I'm guessing the effects would be even worse for an Andromedan." He caught Radu's nod of agreement. "Don't suppose you have any other ideas that might help us even the odds against him?"

Radu shrugged. "We have bone plating over our nerve centers…that's why it will have to be me who hits him. I don't think you could hit hard enough to do any damage…maybe if you had a piece of metal or something, though. You could yell …" he shrugged. "Loud noises bother me, anyway."

"If he lives here, I don't think that's going to bother him," Harlan pointed out. He grinned suddenly. "I wish Bova had been with us—he'd have been pointing out all of the bad things that could happen to us all along."

"I don't think even Bova would have predicted an electric cell hidden in their ceiling."

"Maybe not, Mr. Radu, but it's time we started taking more time to consider worst-case scenarios. I've done just about everything wrong, everything a StarDog should know not to do, since we got that information from Kyldarian. When we get out of here—" always say when and not if when trying to encourage crewmembers—"we are going to start considering options more carefully before we act."

"But Commander, if we don't take chances we might never find the others!"

"The same is true if we take the wrong chances, Mr. Band. Such as those that leave us stranded in a cell in someone's quarters with no way of summoning help."

"I guess."

Radu straightened suddenly. "Someone's coming down the corridor."

The door opened, and Aslinn entered. "Still here?"

Harlan rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, we like the room."

Goddard's estimation of their chances of escape had risen sharply with the entrance of only the human boy. He had years of StarDog training, Harlan was an accomplished martial artist, and Radu had his strength—between the three of them it should be fairly easy to subdue him. "Look, we're being as cooperative as we can here. Can you possibly let us out for a few moments? Just to use the facilities?"

Aslinn looked at him like he'd suddenly sprouted a second head. "What, so you can jump me? No thanks. Jacie should be back soon enough…you can try and fight him if you like."

"Pretty confident," Harlan challenged.

"He's Ashrach."

"He's m-missing?"

Aslinn turned to Radu. "Missing? No, he went down to the concor…you really don't know, do you?"

"Know what?"

He stepped closer. "Lemme see your ears."

Radu glanced at Goddard, who shrugged in return. "What can it hurt?"

Brown eyes widened at the spirals. "I'll be damned. You're Andromedan." He turned to the door. "Jacie, if you can hear me, get back here!"

"Um, your friend is Andromedan," Harlan pointed out.

"No, he's not. He's Ashrach. Um, there were some eggs the Spung pulled out of the hatchery during the war. When they lost so suddenly at the end, they had about 200 eggs hidden. Well, that's how many that have been identified so far."

"No one noticed they were gone?"

Radu glanced over at Harlan and shrugged. "Al-almost a quarter of the eggs in the hatchery were g-gone when it was rescued." He shivered. "They found r-records later…some of them had been…experimented on. Others were smashed as examples. And some were still unaccounted f-for." He nodded to Aslinn. "Ashrach…missing."

"Exactly. The Spung passed them out to their nobility, trained them as bodyguards since the day they hatched. Some of them—the lucky ones like Jacie—managed to get away."

"Wait." Goddard frowned. "That would mean Jacie is only twelve years old."

"Yeah." Aslinn looked confused, and nodded to Radu. "So's he."

"No way! You can't be twelve," Harlan protested. "You look as old as I do!"

Goddard tried to remember what the StarAcademy records had said about Radu, but he hadn't been paying much attention to personal statistics. But the idea that Radu was actually the youngest of the crew…

"How old are you?" Radu asked, looked at Harlan curiously.

"Nineteen!"

"Really?"

"Humans and Andromedans age at different rates," Aslinn said with a grin. "They hatch about as mature as a human five or six year old and grow at about the same rate for a cycle or so. A cycle…maybe four years, Earth standard? Something close to that. Jacie was four when we met up, but he looked like he was about ten—I was thirteen. Then they sort of pause for another cycle…he had a serious growth spurt when I was seventeen and went from ten to fifteen or so in the space of less than a year. Should have seen the looks we got at work. It's been pretty constant since then, but neither of us knows any adult Andromedans so who knows."

"Where's the fire?" Jacie asked, ducking in the door.

"He's Andromedan."

"Excuse me?" Jacie moved to stand in front of the bars. "You can't be…not out here."

"We're from the StarAcademy," Radu answered. "We came through a white hole."

Aslinn glanced at Jacie, who nodded. "Kyldarian needs to keep his mouth shut, but he really did give them our names. Apparently they were trying to get themselves killed on the main concourse."

"And Ch'cov left escorting an unidentified type of craft yesterday…I did what I could with the computers and couldn't find anything connecting them to the Spung or the Triiad. Doesn't mean there's nothing, but it'll be the first time I couldn't locate at least some mention of an operative. Or three. Did you…?"

"Yeah…nothing immediate, but it'll be a few days before I hear from everyone."

Harlan threw up his hands. "We don't have a few days! If you aren't going to help us, just let us go and we won't mention you to anyone."

Jacie moved to the security panel and entered a command to shut down the cell. "Not that simple, actually. If what you say is true, I have an…obligation…to help you."

"Why?" Goddard asked. He couldn't understand why someone who had escaped Spung slavery would choose to remain this close to their space at a station where no one would care if someone disappeared, and the fact that he seemed willing to go up against the Spung seemed even more impossible.

"Aslinn told you what I am. I can't…" he shrugged. "It's still possible we were set up and they're waiting to kill us all, but I can't just look the other way if the Spung are taking up kidnapping around here. Ships I could care less about, but no one should have to go through—" He broke off, staring blankly for a moment, and then shook himself and turned to stare evenly at them. "If I can, I will help you, but right now your word that if I release the bars you will do us no harm."

Goddard nodded, glancing at his students. Harlan still looked a little shell-shocked but not angry enough to attack someone, and Radu was standing quietly. "You have our word, provided you are actually planning to release us."

"That's fair." Jacie hit the last button and the bars dissolved.

"What now?" Radu asked.


	5. Who Are You People?

**What May Come**

_Please see chapter 1 for author's notes. Thank you to those who have reviewed, I appreciate the input to the story._

Chapter 5: Who Are You People?

Aslinn sighed, indicating the cushions littering the floor. "My suggestion would be that we all take a seat and you tell us again what exactly happened."

"We already told you once!" Harlan objected.

"Yeah, well, let's just say the details we were listening for weren't really the ones that would be useful for finding a ship…more those we could use to discredit you."

"Before we answer anything," Goddard said firmly, "I want some information about you. One minute you're saying you can help us, then you're locking us up, and now you're willing to help us again? Out of some sense of obligation that won't let you let us leave? You'll have to forgive me for being suspicious."

"It's not…you can leave, if you like," Jacie said with a shrug, glancing at Aslinn. "I didn't mean that you couldn't. But you'll be in the same position that you were before—no information about your friends, and no idea where to look for it. And likely to get yourself killed trying to find some."

Harlan shook his head. "You keep saying that, but no one's tried to kill us yet. You're just trying to scare us."

"If I wanted you gone, you'd be gone. What would be the point of a scare? Give them time."

"Ask your questions, we'll answer what we can," Aslinn said in the silence that followed. "What can it hurt, really, you staying here for a bit longer?"

Goddard nodded slightly, but he didn't look pleased. "You make a good point. Who are you, really? How did you get here?"

"Aslinn Mallory, at your service. Born in New Chicago, once upon a time, although I don't really remember it. Dad was a small-time trader; we spent the next few years there on the rim. Mom left to join the StarDogs when I was four or so, and we—Dad and I—started moving farther from the Sol system. Got word when I was nine…maybe ten…that she'd been killed in the war. It didn't mean much to me, but Dad…he wanted to get even farther away. By then the ship was in lousy shape, so we'd go as long as we could, stop at a station and sell what we had, work to get enough money to fix the ship and pick up more goods, and move on. Met up with Jacie on Tindles Orbital when I was about thirteen…Dad died shortly after and we've stuck together since. We—I—couldn't stay there, so we took the ship to Ventainia." He glanced over at Jacie.

"There's not much to tell about me beyond what Az already told you. Spent the first part of my life as a slave—I will not talk about that so don't ask—but I got lucky and managed to escape. Met up with Aslinn not too long after that, on the docks. Surprised the hell out of me when I got contacted by a member of the In'Tssai—a resistance group. Don't ask us about them either…we still don't have any guarantee you aren't going to betray us to the Spung and/or Triiad, we certainly aren't handing over anyone else. For the last few years we've been evacking people. Salvage is our cover…the ship is nothing special, but that works as much for us as against us. By choice I'd build my sensor nets, and Az would design power sources and engines, and we'd both fade nicely into obscurity, but we don't get that choice. Well, I don't…I didn't realize it at the time, but I'd never have escaped without help, and I owe it to those still trapped to pass on the favor."

"You're in, I'm in, brother," Aslinn said firmly. "You know that. So that's our story…dock rats by day, inventors at night, and resistance workers when the need presents itself."

"But you've got a ship…you can help us get to them!" Harlan pointed out.

"We have a salvage ship in lousy shape with cobbled together hull plating that occasionally loses pieces on landing. The weapons system consists of two badly-mounted forward lasers that even Jacie can't aim worth anything, and don't get me started on the current state of our battle screens. We'd have a hard time taking out a Spung transport shuttle, never mind a Killcruiser." Aslinn shook his head. "Look, the first thing we need to do is find out where your crewmembers are or having a ship doesn't do any good. So could you please start your story again from the beginning? And have you ever had any run-ins with the Spung before?"

Radu listened absently as Goddard told their story yet again, but most of his attention was focused on Jacie, where it had been since Aslinn had given his description of the Ashrach. Staring was incredibly impolite, but since occasionally he caught Jacie studying him out of the corner of his eye, he figured he would be forgiven this once. The idea of hatching, starting life as a slave to the Spung and knowing no other life…. He could still see Jesh, and the scars he'd carried from the mines…still hear the horror in the stories he'd told late at night. The others in the sleeping quarters never woke during his nightmares…no few of them, at least the older ones, had nightmares of their own from their time with the Spung, but none like his. Radu had been the one who'd gotten up with him, who'd listened when the memories got to be too much. And even now, so long after, those talks gave his mind too much fodder for nightmares when he thought about the Spung. He shook himself back to the present when he heard Goddard mention Warlord Shank. And just in time.

"Real nasty dude," Harlan was agreeing. "Although we did meet a girl at the same time who's sweet on Radu…"

"Harlan!" While he was glad Harlan left out the part that the girl was Elmira, the daughter of Warlord Shank, it was still embarrassing to have it talked about in front of strangers.

Aslinn and Jacie snickered, and Commander Goddard shook his head. "Mr. Band…"

"Yeah, yeah, I couldn't help it. Sorry, Radu."

Radu shook his head, dismissing it. Harlan never—almost never—meant any harm when he teased; it was just his way of showing friendship. A strange and bizarre way that didn't really make sense to him, but he'd come to accept that humans were confusing. "The last time we saw Warlord Shank, Pezu had him trapped on her station."

"What's a Pezu?" Aslinn asked.

"She was a station we met," Goddard took over the explanation. "Apparently she was just lonely, but her ideas on how to make and keep friends really weren't healthy. She gave his ship computer systems a virus, so I'm not sure he could have gotten away from the station even if he did escape her traps."

"They always do, somehow," Jacie put in dryly. "Although…it seems you had an interesting time since you hijacked your ship. Or it hijacked you…not really sure how that works. Never heard of that happening before."

"Then again, we've never heard of Lumanians before either," Aslinn pointed out. "And that's unusual; we know most all the species out here. Of them, anyway. So, back to your crew. Aside from Shank and this…Amirge guy, you haven't had any other contact with the Spung Empire?"

"Well, we don't know who was in command of the Killcruisers that were destroyed coming off the planet we crashed on, but I suspect Shank was behind it," Goddard said after a moment. "He's the one we embarrassed by escaping—twice, at that point. Whoever they were, they're dead now."

Radu was glad that he left out Elmira's psychic warning…the story was hard enough to believe without it. "Do you have any idea where they might be taking the others?"

"Ch'cov is in lousy shape. Took too many hits in the war to ever be repaired fully. I'm assuming the others on your crew are intelligent enough to figure that out. So either they aren't going far, or there's another ship somewhere nearby waiting to take over."

"Contrary to popular belief, you don't find Killcruisers floating at random in Spung space. There's only about 100 of them out currently…and none are within five days' flight." Jacie frowned slightly. "There's half a dozen light cruisers that could have gotten to them by now though, and at least one of the heavy cruisers."

"Damn, I didn't realize there were any of those in the area." Aslinn made a face. "I'm not sure Galzaz has the authority to command it, but…how good is the weaponry on your ship?"

"We haven't found any weapons on the Christa," Goddard answered. "The shields are pretty good…"

Jacie looked appalled. "No weapons? At all?"

"Well, that rules out them having fought their way free," Aslinn muttered.

"They might have hyperjumped," Harlan offered. "That's how we've gotten away before."

"Please. The Spung would have seen the buildup of power in your engines and fired considerably more than a warning shot long before they could jump," Jacie disagreed. "I've contacted who I can—do not ask—they'll get word out quickly. We should know within three or four days where your ship was taken."

"By then the Killcruisers could have gotten here!" Radu protested. "And j-just because you'll know where they were taken doesn't mean they'll still be there!"

"And what if they get split up?" Harlan demanded. "We need to get to them before that happens!"

"Kid," Aslinn said calmly, despite the fact that he couldn't be that much older than Harlan. "It's quite possible that that's already happened. The odds of getting all of your friends away from the Spung are basically nill…we'll do what we can, but you might as well face reality."

"If—if—the Spung keep them all on your ship it might be doable," Jacie said after a moment, "but don't count on it. Do any of your crewmembers have any particular talents that the Spung might be able to exploit?"

"Bova is Uranusian, but not full adult," Goddard answered after a moment. "He can channel something like 20,000 volts…"

"They've got staffs that do that," Aslinn said dismissively. "Non-sentient, and easy to control. Same deal with the Mercurian girl…just not that useful. So that leaves who?"

"Miss Davenport is good with computers," Harlan offered. "Thelma is an android. And Suzee is an engineering genius—literally."

"And she's telepathic…she can go into people's minds."

Radu thought for a moment, remembering the contact they'd had with the Spung since the Yenisidian girl joined the crew. She hadn't come into contact with Warlord Shank, and she'd remained on the ship searching for the Rhomby when Amirge had taken them captive… "I don't think the Spung know that. I don't think she ever used it around them."

"Hm. Well, if she keeps her head in…well, her head, she might be okay." Jacie shrugged. "Reliable telepaths aren't real common in this area. They'll break her and use her if they find out. As for the computer person…they might have some use for her if she's good enough. The android would be left with the ship if she's willing to work with them. I'm assuming that won't be the case so she'll probably be disassembled and melted down. That wouldn't be a priority though, for transport they'd just deactivate her."

"Only we can pilot the Christa," Harlan said suddenly. "I don't think we mentioned that, but it's true."

"It can't be that complicated," Aslinn objected.

"No, he's right. She bonded to them, not even TJ—Miss Davenport—and I can fly her. The controls just freeze."

"So they'll force the issue," Jacie said, with a lack of concern indicating that objects being difficult to move had never been much of a problem for him.

Radu shook his head. "It wouldn't work. The controls would break, or be electrified, or something. The Christa is…different. She has a mind of her own."

"No kidding?" Aslinn looked interested; Jacie didn't seem convinced. "Well, then at least a couple of them should be kept with your ship. That's a plus for us. Unless the Spung decide to dismantle it, of course." Aslinn shrugged. "There's not a lot we can do until we find out where they're being taken. You might as well go back to your quarters—you have quarters, right?"

"Uh, yeah, a couple levels down," Harlan answered.

"Good. Go back, get a couple hours sleep if you can. You and Radu are working, right? All right, I'll take you—" that was to Commander Goddard—"around tomorrow, check with the people I couldn't find this evening."

"I'll finish up what I need to in the labs, lock down the stuff that can wait, and meet you two on the docks at lunch. We'll need money…for repairs to get the Rockhopper spaceborne if nothing else."

Aslinn frowned for a moment as they stood to leave. "A suggestion? Your uniforms make you stand out here. I'd suggest stopping by the commissary tomorrow and picking out civilian stuff…better to blend in. I'd say borrow some of ours, but none of us are quite the same size."

Goddard thanked him for the advice, and the three of them headed back to quarters. Radu looked over as he settled himself at the computer terminal in the room rather than taking his bunk. "Commander? Aren't you going to sleep?"

"We made a mistake once, trusting people without checking their information. I'd like to verify what Aslinn and Jacie told us as much as I can. You two get some sleep."

"Are you sure? We could help," Harlan offered.

"There's only one terminal…I don't think you two reading over my shoulder will make that much of a difference. Best rest while you can."


	6. What Are the Odds?

**What May Come**

_Please see chapter 1 for author's notes. As a side note, if anyone remembers for certain whether Suzee ever used her telepathy in front of the Spung would you let me know?_

Chapter 6: What Are the Odds?

Harlan yawned, pushing away the hand that nudged his shoulder insistently. "Just a few more minutes." The hand refused to be pushed, nudging him again. Radu, his mind identified after a moment, and then the events of the last few days snapped into focus and he sat up quickly. "I'm up, I'm up. Commander, did you get any sleep?"

The man sat where they'd left him, in front of the room's access terminal. "I'll be fine, Mr. Band."

"Did you find out anything?" He moved to look over one of the commander's shoulders, Radu looking over the other. "Were they telling the truth?"

"As far as I can tell. This is a public net so I couldn't verify a lot, but there are work records for Aslinn and Jacie going back several years. Nothing too spectacular, they seem to like working on the crews. And apparently they do design power sources and sensors…they have their names on a patent from a year or so ago, with some ocean research team. There's obviously no record of their resistance involvement, but there I did find a few references to In'Tssai—mostly on the Spung equivalent of a most-wanted list—so it does exist."

"You don't look happy."

"There's something about the two of them that makes me nervous. It's nothing I can put my finger on, but…they're so young."

Harlan nodded at that. Even discounting the fact that Jacie—and Radu—weren't even technically teenagers yet, a fact he still was having trouble getting his mind around, their only potential allies in this place were barely into adulthood. Aslinn seemed friendly enough, but…Jacie had been dead serious when he'd said breaking their necks would mean nothing, when he'd warned them that he could easily get rid of them. 'Ashrach' or 'Ashrak' or whatever he wanted to call himself, he was still Andromedan, and he was finding that acceptance of Radu wasn't the same as acceptance of the entire race.

"Harlan?"

He cut off the thought immediately, glancing over at Radu. "Just thinking. Come on, let's get down to the concourse and grab a change of clothes before the shift starts."

"Commander?"

"Go ahead, I'm going to let this search finish and then I'll go down myself."

"So what do you think of them?" Harlan asked as they made their way through the halls.

Radu shrugged. "Aslinn seems nice. Jacie…" he shivered slightly. "I—I have nightmares sometimes about the Spung. I can't imagine what being hatched, being raised by them would be like."

"Yeah, that would be just about your worst nightmare," Harlan agreed quietly. "So you're really twelve, huh?"

"Yes." Radu grinned. "I never thought about you being that much older….When I first started at the StarAcademy they told me I would be one of the youngest students there. Then I got there and met Rosie and saw so many of the others that looked younger…I figured I'd just misunderstood. Do humans really take five years to get to the stage of a hatchling? What do you do for five years?"

Harlan matched his grin at that. "I don't know exactly what a hatchling can do, but we don't really start school or anything before then. We're just babies, I guess."

They reached the concourse before they could go any farther into comparative anthropology. It was easy enough to find replacements for their uniforms—the look on Radu's face when he suggested one of the glow-in-the-dark green and orange designs had been more than amusing—but neither forgot their main purpose was to avoid standing out, and before long they were back on the docks in the most nondescript clothing they could find.

Kyldarian was a bit nervous as he greeted them, and looked more so when Harlan mentioned that Jacie planned to join them at lunch. "You weren't supposed to give them my name!" he hissed.

"Yeah, well, you could have mentioned that they have a holding cell built into their quarters," Harlan snapped right back, more than a little annoyed that the man hadn't given them any idea what they'd be facing.

"They have a what!" He shook his head. "Never mind, I don't want to know. All right, I'll get you two started, and Jacie can take my spot when he gets here."

Goddard had just finished changing when the door chimed. He took a moment to confirm that his guest was indeed the redheaded human before opening the door. "Aslinn."

"Hello. Hm…the clothes are much better. A uniform would have scared off the people I want to talk to. Are you ready to go?"

"A few more questions, if you don't mind."

The wariness on the boy's face was hard to miss, but he nodded, leaning against the wall by the door. "Ask away."

"I didn't want to ask in front of Harlan and Radu, but how much experience do you actually have retrieving people from the Spung?"

"Six years, give or take."

"How often are you successful?"

"More than we aren't?" Aslinn shrugged. "We're one stop in a chain…if you're asking if we, personally, have ever lost anyone, the answer is no. But sometimes the Spung close up patrols…if the people we're supposed to be shuttling out never make it to the rendezvous, there isn't a lot we can do. We can't go charging into Spung space with guns blazing. Well, we could I guess, but my life isn't so bad I'd consider suicide and I know Jacie feels the same."

Goddard hated to ask the next question, but the Spung had never put much emphasis on taking prisoners during the war and as far as he knew, none of those who had been taken had ever returned. There were certainly no prisoner-of-war stories afterwards, at least not among the UPP. The Andromedans might have known more, but he'd been a young lieutenant on one of the surviving cruisers, certainly not one of the ones involved in negotiations. "Honestly, what do you think our chances are of finding the others?"

"Finding them…call it a 95 chance. Assuming they're all still alive, there aren't many places we don't have eyes."

"And getting them out?"

Aslinn met his eyes squarely. "All four of them? Call it a 10 chance. At best. The one good thing I can tell you is that Spung are focused in the Kalrabi sector now…minor turf war. They might be willing to leave the ship and crew alone until that situation is handled, especially since your ship has no weapons and won't be able to hyperjump away without them knowing in advance. But if they're interested enough in the technology to send out scientists immediately—or if this Warlord Shank finds out about the capture—you can pretty much forget it. My best guess…the woman who can't control the ship—Davenport?—will either be sold off as a slave or executed offhand as a means of controlling the others. Like Jacie said, if the telepath doesn't let them know about her powers, she might be all right. In fact…" He trailed off for a moment, considering. "If they don't decide to dismantle the ship, she and the younger two who can control it will probably be kept onboard as slaves."

As much as he hated the idea of leaving TJ behind, Goddard knew his first responsibility was to the students, and that she would be the first to agree. "What about saving Suzee, Rosie, and Bova."

"Provided the ship isn't taken into the heart of the empire…50, maybe. Two of the three, anyway…I can pretty much guarantee that at least one will be kept on your command post at all times."

So half a chance of getting half of his missing crew back. "How sure are you?"

Aslinn shrugged. "We don't normally go in ourselves; we're transport like I told you. But I know how the empire works. I'm sorry, but the odds aren't good." He glanced at the chronometer on the wall. "We should get moving."

He seemed to know where he was headed, Goddard noted, but the part of the station they were entering wasn't one that he'd willingly have entered on his own. It was where people went when they had no other choice…when there was nowhere else to go. And the way they'd been winding, he wasn't sure that he would be able to find his way out again. "Who are we meeting?"

"A friend of mine." He turned abruptly into one of the smaller corridors, and suddenly they were in what looked to be a medical bay. "Free clinic," Aslinn said absently, answering the unspoken question, pushing through the crush of bodies. "And yeah, it's always like this. Never enough medics to go around, but…" He stopped at the desk of a harried looking receptionist. "I'm looking for Tamsin?"

"He's already picked up his medication."

"Damn. Any idea where he's staying now?" It looked at him in disbelief, and he sighed. "I had to try."

The two of them made their way out of the clinic. "Medication?"

"Antidepressants, mostly. One of the few things this place is well supplied with. Tamsin's a good guy…and paranoid enough that he'd know exactly who took your crew, when, and what shape exactly the escort ship was in. He's not a fan of the Spung."

The idea that their current allies were getting intelligence information from a medicated homeless man was enough to make Goddard pause, but…as Aslinn had said before, what other options did they have? "Who else are we visiting?"

Some of the hesitation must have shown in his voice, because Aslinn grinned. "Relax, I was down here visiting the others last night. Don't look so surprised, this is the place to come for information…it can't be patrolled. Anyway, we're headed for a couple of the traders who do go into Spung territory. I wasn't kidding when I said the Rockhopper is in bad condition…if we need to get much past the outer rim, we'll need transport."

Much to Goddard's relief, they made their way fairly quickly out of the lower portions of the station and into a section much like the quarters he and his crew were currently occupying. "You think they'll be willing to help us?"

"In most cases it depends on what you've got to offer…if they ask, you're looking for family who were taken. Don't get specific, and let me do the talking as much as possible."

Harlan and Radu stopped for lunch, but before they could make their way off the docks, Jacie met them. "Our quarters. We can talk while we eat."

Harlan glanced at Radu, who shook his head slightly. Neither of them was too interested in going back to the place where they'd spent several hours locked in a cell. "Ours are closers," he suggested.

"As you please." Jacie gestured for them to precede him. "Did you tell Kyldarian that I'd be working after lunch."

"We told him," Radu answered after a moment. "Did you finish what you needed to?"

"As much as I could." He shrugged, following them into their quarters and declining Harlan's lunch offer.

"So I guess you still don't know where the Christa is?" Harlan asked.

Jacie shook his head. "Sorry. I know of a few places it definitely isn't, but it will be at least another day, and probably more like two or three, before I can tell you where it is."

"What happens when we find out?" Radu asked.

"Depends." Jacie shrugged. "Aslinn and I evac mostly…commando raids are a little outside our area of expertise. I know a few people who can help, but they have their own problems to handle."

Harlan frowned. "So we plan for the worst, right?"

"What, that they're already dead? How does that help?" He shook his head. "Considering even the next-worst cases…a toss up between being locked separately in cells in the heart of the empire and being shipped to the deepest darkest mines you can find in four separate corners of the empire…is pointless. There's nothing we'll be able to do, except maybe offer them a quick death if they're in the cells."

"So what do you suggest?"

That was Radu, and Harlan couldn't help but be relieved. The navigator had been nervous as anything when this mess had started, but he seemed to have calmed down some. And when he needed to be, he was very good at staying levelheaded and not running off without thinking, which as Miss Davenport and the commander had pointed out was not one of Harlan's own strong points.

"Honestly? Hope. Hope they leave most of your crew together and that I get word before they're too far into the empire to do anything. Az was talking about getting transport with one of the traders going into Spung space. If they can get us close to your crew, we can get the Rockhopper to them. It's a piece of junk…but it's a fast piece of junk, and there are plenty of asteroid fields out there."

"If we can get the Christa free, we can hyperjump out of Spung space," Harlan pointed out. Without a ship they'd be stuck out here with no way of getting home. And abandoning Thelma and the Christa to the Spung didn't sit right with him, although he'd be the first to agree that Suzee, Bova, Rosie, and Miss Davenport had to be the priority.

"I suspect they aren't going to just let you start up the engines. But it's an option." He pulled out a ration bar and began to eat slowly. "So what's it like?"

That was directed at Radu, who frowned. "What's what it like?"

"Living on the Space Arks. Around other Andromedans."

"Huh?"

Jacie frowned. "I've lived with the Spung, and then with Aslinn for the last eight years. I know other Ashrach, but…what's it like, living with people like u—" His wristcomm chimed, and he broke off. "Jace."

"'s me, brother. Can you find the others and be ready to move out within the hour?"

"They're here. You found the crew?"

"Not exactly…there's a Centauri deckship heading from Jungia to Dartholm. If we can get the Rockhopper to them, they'll take us onboard."

"Centauri are helping us? Which body parts are we supposed to be giving up?"

"It's our old friend Shavic. His cousin passed on the information. We're supposed to meet them beyond Marduk if we want the trip, but it will take us the better part of a day to get there…"

Harlan and Radu exchanged glances. The Centauri were primarily merchants, concerned with making money. And holding power. If something gave Aslinn and Jacie some kind of hold over them… "What does Commander Goddard think?" Harlan asked.

"It's the best chance we've got," the Commander's voice sounded over the commlink. "Pack up what we've got and follow Jacie. Aslinn and I are working on their ship, we'll meet you there."

"What we've got?" Radu looked around the room in confusion. There was a little food and their uniforms, nothing else. "All right."

They finished packing quickly. Jacie left to inform Kyldarian about the change in plans and pick up his and Aslinn's things, promising to return shortly to take them to the ship. Unfortunately, when Radu opened the door opened at the next chime, instead of the Ashrach boy several heavily armed figures stood in the doorway. "We are with the Triiad Peacekeepers. You are under arrest."

Harlan put down the pack he'd been lifting and raised his arms at the apparently leader's sharp gesture. "Ah, hell. Captured twice by two different groups in two days…that has to be a record."


	7. Time to Go

**What May Come**

_Please see chapter 1 for author's notes._

Chapter 7: Time to Go

Radu stepped back from the door at the gesture of one of the armed men, trying to maneuver between them and the human. Harlan was better with spur-of-the-moment plans, if he could distract them for that moment…

"Against the wall!" the leader snarled. "Don't try anything!"

Harlan moved forward beside Radu. "Under arrest by who? Where's your warrant?"

"We have the guns, kid. We don't need a warrant. Against the wall with the other one…and don't try anything. These things can drop and Ashrach in his tracks, they're certainly strong enough to stop you."

Radu suspected that the Ashrach comment had been directed at him and didn't try and correct the man's assumption. There were three of them total—humanoid, but with green-tinted skin and oddly elongated arms ending in four-fingered hands. He didn't recognize the race, but that didn't really mean anything. The part that did mean something was that their arms were holding rather nasty looking weapons. He complied with the man's order and backed up against the wall as Harlan did the same.

"So are you going to shoot us or what?" Harlan demanded, ignoring the glare his crewmate gave him for the suggestion.

"Not just yet…the Spung were pleased to see your ship here, I imagine they wouldn't mind retrieving more of the crew." The speaker gestured one of the other two forward. "Bind their hands. And don't bother tying anything you two, they're made of castroginium."

They bound Harlan first with the metallic ropes…just his hands, and in front of his body. He was pushed forward, into the center of the room near the third guard as the man with the bindings moved toward Radu. Radu held out his wrists at a sharp gesture, turning it into a powerful shove at Harlan's shouted "Now!"

The man who'd come forward to tie him hit the wall hard enough to fall stunned, and Radu reached for the speaker. Harlan had kicked him in the back, sending him forward, and his gun was within arms reach. The inertial dampening gloves Radu wore were designed to keep him from accidentally applying enough pressure to bruise someone or break things; they weren't designed to prevent him from exerting his full strength if he chose to do so. It didn't take anywhere near full strength to crush the barrel of the weapon. He repeated the procedure on the weapon of the one who'd hit the wall. Harlan had disarmed the last guard and delivered a neat two-handed chop to the neck of the speaker, who'd stayed on his feet after loosing his gun. Radu turned back as the man hit the floor. "Harlan, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. You?"

"I'm not hurt." Radu tugged at the cables binding Harlan's arms, but couldn't break them. "We better find a knife or something."

"Don't worry about it." Harlan tugged at a piece of the wire with his teeth, and sure enough it began to unravel. "I noticed the same thing about the ones Warlord Shank tied us up with…they might be unbreakable, but they're also too stiff to tie very well. The knots come right out. Especially since they were nice enough to leave my hands in front of me."

Radu nodded, and then looked at the men on the floor. "Should we call security, or…"

"I don't know. I don't think I want station security involved though, just in case. Maybe we should wait until we're on our way off the station and send an anonymous message or something…that way someone will know what they tried to do, but nobody can drag us down to the offices for some kind of 'official' investigation."

"All right. Let's wait for Jacie down the hall, just in case some others come." Picking up the bag holding what little supplies they had, he followed Harlan out into the corridor.

They only had a few minutes—a few very tense minutes—to wait, before Jacie reappeared with one bag slung over his shoulder and carrying a second. "What are you doing out here?"

"We had company," Harlan replied. "We need to contact station security before we take off."

"And I was trying to scare you, huh?" Jacie said dryly. "Come on, if it was the Triiad they won't wait long before sending another team." He turned, heading back down to corridor in the direction he'd come from. He turned off fairly quickly however, leading them down to a much smaller dock than they'd been working on. He knocked on the hatch of the first ship they came to. "Aslinn?"

"Jacie?" The redhead appeared at the near hatch. "Good timing, I was about to call you. Just got word from Myanmar, there's a launch window in half an hour that we can have. We owe him some repairs on his sailship when we get back."

Jace made a face. "We could always get killed."

"I'm laughing inside. Really." Aslinn waved at the other two to come in. "Come on, you can toss your stuff on one of the bunks."

Radu glanced again at the ship before he entered, and noticed Harlan doing the same thing. It was a different design than most of the ships he was familiar with…a blocky 'body' coming to a pointed tip, with protrusions off the front that he assumed were the laser cannons Aslinn had mentioned. Fins extended from the angled front, on which engines were mounted. It wasn't very large…perhaps a hundred feet long and maybe a quarter less than that wide, even including the fins. The size wouldn't have bothered him as much, if it wasn't fairly obvious that the hull paneling didn't match in a lot of places, and there were places that bore scorch marks that were less than reassuring. He wasn't the best at engineering, but even so he was glad he didn't have a better view of the engines.

"We'd better get the ship locked down," Jacie commented as they stepped inside. "They had some visitors while I was picking up our stuff."

"Damn. Good thing we're launching soon then."

"Where's Commander Goddard?" Radu asked as they stepped—cautiously—over the hatch threshold. There were entirely too many exposed wires above his head for his peace of mind—Andromedan hair was flammable. Harlan was ignoring wiring above, and watching the wiring and piping that ran alongside, some of which was making crackling and grumbling noises that were apparently audible even to a human.

"He's in the bunkroom," Aslinn supplied, standing in the corridor. "This is the main hall of the ship. Directly behind me…" he reached over his shoulder to pat a blast door, "is the commands post. The next door down is the bunkroom, the one after that is the rec room, and that door at the far end leads to the holding bay. Bathroom is on the interior, connected to the bunkroom and the rec room."

Harlan frowned. "What about food?"

"We've got a quasi-galley in the rec room, and some rations stored. Not the best variety, but they'll do in a pinch. I was going to hit the commissary and pick up some fresh stuff as soon as you got here, make it a little more edible, but..."

Jacie glanced at the chronometer. "I'd rather be ready to move as soon as we get the call. Get out of the bay, even if we can't really launch."

Aslinn took the bags from him. "Com's yours, I'll show them how to strap in and then recheck the hatches. Come on."

That was directed at Harlan and Radu, who fell in behind him. Harlan glanced up at their guide. "You said it would be a day before we got to the other ship? The one that's taking us into Spung space?"

"Yeah. We'll be skirting the edges, and meeting up with a Centauri deckship at Marduk.

"What's a deckship?" Radu asked curiously. He was familiar with the ship types in the Andromedan fleet, and had at least a passing knowledge of most of those the UPP possessed, but 'deckship' wasn't a term he'd heard before.

"They're huge haulers. Like carriers, except not designed to hold fighters. You use them to move smaller spacecraft…planetary shuttles, short-range transports, that kind of thing. Much more efficient for something like a colonizing operation, or stocking a station, than flying each ship out individually. Less fuel use, less wear on the ships, that kind of thing. We call them deckships because that's all they are. Three or four decks, full of ships. Apparently they've got room for us to dock the Rockhopper and will carry us as far as we need to. Well, as long as where we need to go follows their flight path…otherwise we'll have to take off on our own."

"Yeah, but we don't know where we're going," Harlan pointed out.

"Hopefully we'll find out…the Rockhopper is actually what we use to receive In'Tssai transmissions—station security being what it is, we figured that was safer—so with a little luck Jacie will hear from someone who knows what's happening to your crew before the Centauri get to their destination and turn around to head back out. And if not…" He shrugged, opening another blast door and entering the bunkroom.

Radu wondered just how many people they normally evacuated at once—there were three bunk beds and two couches, as well as several trunks.

Goddard sat on the lower bunk nearest, reading something off a compupad. "Commander?" Harlan asked.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't see you come in." He stood, putting the pad down. "Aslinn gave me some star charts with known Spung installations on them…there are enough similarities between most of the sites that we can come up with some general plans. I doubt they'd just leave the others on the Christa, especially if they're waiting for scientists—or Warlord Shank—to arrive. You brought our things?"

"What we had," Harlan confirmed. "We had a run-in with a couple of thugs…we're both all right, but we need to leave a message with station security before we leave."

"After we leave," Aslinn corrected. "We can tightbeam it back, but it'd be best not to give anyone an excuse to detain us." He tossed one of the bags onto the upper bunk on opposite Goddard and the other onto the one jutting into the center of the room with its head beside the first. "Jace and I will do launch prep. Once we clear the station, we'll be taking one of the slingshot launches…save the engines some. You'll either want to lie down and put on the bracing straps—" he pulled a net-like object from one side of the bunkbed and demonstrated quickly how it latched onto the opposite side to pin a person in place, "or sit on the couches and use the harnesses. They're built onto the seats...just sit down and flip them over your shoulders; it'll be pretty obvious how they latch. Be a bumpy ride for about ten minutes, and then you can get up and move around. The stabilizers aren't the best though…we usually at least partially strap in before we sleep, and if you're going to be sitting for awhile it doesn't hurt to at least pull the harness down even if you don't fasten it. I've gotten dumped on the floor a couple times."

A door beyond the bunkbed across the center of the room opened, and Jacie stuck his head in. "Best check the hatches now, for once they're moving ahead of schedule. I'm about to bring up the engines."

Aslinn nodded. "I'll start with the cargo hatch and work my way back to command." He turned back to the three from the Christa. "One of us will give you the grand tour as soon as we're out in space, until then just hang out here."

Goddard nodded as he exited, and then looked over at Harlan and Radu. "Let's strap in, and you can tell me about this 'run-in'."

Radu and Harlan took seats on the couch in the back of the room, while Goddard moved to the one at the head of the bunk he'd been sitting on. The harnesses were easy enough to figure out—it looked like they'd been taken from standard single-seat fighters. "Jacie went to tell Kyldarian about the change of plans and get their stuff, and when we heard a knock on the door we thought he was back," Harlan began. "But— what's that?"

A sputtering noise could clearly be heard in the background, trying to rise in pitch but falling back. After the third or fourth attempt, a steady drone was finally reached. Radu pinpointed the location of the sounds easily enough, and then remembered the outer layout of the ship. From the look on Commander Goddard's face, he'd reached the same conclusion. "I think those were the engines coming online."

The drone was suddenly replaced by a roaring sound, and Radu covered his ears reflexively. "Ah, man," Harlan muttered. "the whole ship is vibrating from those things. It's a good thing there's no sound in space. Can we hold off on the rest of the story until then?"

Goddard nodded, much to Radu's relief. He had no desire to try out-shouting—or listening to his crewmate out-shout—the engines' roar.

Apparently when they'd said launch time was in about half an hour, they'd meant the slingshot launch, because only a few moments later Aslinn's voice came over the comm. "Please make sure you're strapped in, we'll be clearing the station in the next five minutes, and making our way to the launchers. The noise will stop as soon as we clear the bay atmosphere, I promise."

True to his word, a few moments later the ship began to move, and after a quick jolt the sound ceased, although there was still a faint vibration. "My ears are still ringing," Harlan muttered.

"No kidding," Radu responded just as quietly.

"Why don't you finish telling me what happened on the station?" Goddard cut in.

Radu was content to leave most of the tale to Harlan, answering what questions he could when the commander asked him. Not that either of them could tell him very much…they didn't know who the men had been, or anything about them except that they were planning to sell the two of them to the Spung.

"You did well," Goddard assured them as they finished. "Honestly, I doubt you'd have been able to find out who they were working for, unless you let them take you back to him. Which would not have been a good idea under the circumstances."

"Yeah, well, I just hope no one on the station has the guts to come after us," Harlan commented.

"We're next in line for the slingshot," Aslinn's voice sounded. "Brace yourselves."


	8. And So It Begins

**What May Come**

_Please see chapter 1 for author's notes._

Chapter 8: And So It Begins

Harlan gripped the harness lightly, tightening his hands reflexively as a force shoved him sideways in his seat. He realized belatedly that he and Radu, despite being in the back of the room, were actually sideways in relation to the engines and the direction they were being propelled. Goddard was being shoved backward in his seat, and even Radu beside him was clearly feeling the affects of the acceleration. The pressure didn't ease, although occasionally he was jolted and jerked as the ship swerved and dipped, apparently dodging some sort of obstacles in their path. At least he hoped it was just obstacles, and not the questionable engines they're heard earlier giving trouble. Well, too late now...

They all breathed a sigh of relief as the pressure began to lessen and then finally taper off to nothing. "I think it's over," Radu said cautiously.

"Yeah," Jacie agreed, coming back through the inner door. "We're back under our own power. Aslinn's going to pilot for awhile; he wanted me to give you the tour and the rules."

"Rules?" Harlan asked.

"Beyond the usual 'pick up after yourselves'," Jacie answered with a shrug. "Come on, I'll explain as we go." He waited until they'd unstrapped themselves, and then gestured back to the door he'd come through. "That way is the command post. It's pretty cramped, so I'm not going to suggest you go in. Notice anything about the door?"

"It's a blast door," Radu said cautiously.

"Yes. And so is the one from here to the bathroom, and the rec room, and…with the exception of the shower stall, any door you can walk through on this ship is a blast door. Designed that way on purpose, so if by some twist of fate we get blown into little pieces, we can seal the rooms individually if necessary. Can't seal them if they aren't shut however—the first rule on this ship is if you open a door, you make sure it gets shut. And that it latches." He stepped past Harlan and Radu, opening a door beside the couch. "The bathroom is in here. I imagine you've seen one before." A quick tug and the door was shut, and then he moved towards the front of the room, towards a door at the foot of the bunk Goddard had been on. "Through here is the rec room."

Harlan was the first to follow him, and he found himself in a room slightly larger than the bunkroom. A small area was sectioned off and seemed to contain a refrigeration unit and a heater—the galley Aslinn had mentioned. There was another bunkbed in the room, as well as another couch, but one wall was taken up with a long table similar to the one they'd had in their quarters, and there was another table in the center of the room. The back wall had a large cabinet and another door, and there was a third door on the opposite side wall, as well as one he assumed led back to the main hallway. "Where do those go?" he asked curiously.

"The back one leads to the bathroom again, and this front one to the hall," Jacie confirmed. "The other one…guess that's the other important you need to know. The living quarters have a thick blast shield around them—just as thick as the one in the hull. So please use the inner doors and stay out of the hallway if you can. There's no real reason to go out there anyway…it only leads to the cargo bay, and that isn't pressurized now. There's a door from the cargo bay to the bathroom too…it's locked now though. The only other parts of the ship with plating as thick as the living quarters are the escape pods. One through there—" he gestured to the third door, "one in the bathroom, opposite the shower stall, and one in the nose attached to the command post. Well," he shrugged. "There're two others, but they're meant for access from the cargo bay so they aren't exactly relevant now. All of them are marked, you'll be able to see the signs when you're closer."

"How long can they sustain people for?" Goddard asked.

Jacie shrugged. "There's ration bars and water enough for two weeks…the air supply, recycled, would last ten days. They've got limited flight capability…basic thrusters…but there's a two-way comm built into each and the distress beacons and are pretty strong."

"That's probably not a good thing in Spung space," Harlan muttered.

That drew a grin from their guide. "Perhaps not. Oh…when I said ten days, that was ten days for two people. I'm not sure what it would be for three. If it comes to that, you might be better off splitting up."

"You th-think we're going to need to?" Radu asked quietly.

That drew a shrug. "We're going farther into Spung space than I've been in two cycles. I hope we don't, but I also don't want to have to climb out of the escape pod with Az to point out the ones you should be in if it comes to that." He kicked at something on the ground, and then pulled one of the wheeled chairs around, dropping down to sit on it backwards with his arms crossed on the backrest. "Other good things to know…the back cabinets have games and models and stuff if you get bored, you're welcome to use to computer terminals." He waved a hand at the two monitors behind him. "Food is in the galley. Don't start any fires. Put stuff away when you finish with it, and close and latch the trunks and cabinets…getting whacked by a flying plate is painful. The furniture can all be moved, just make sure you lock it back into place. And if you need to strap into one of these wheeled chairs, double check that the floor clips are working. Az didn't once." He grinned. "Wasn't too long after we started together…I learned a lot of new words when he landed. Oh, yeah. There's medical stuff in all of the rooms, in the trunks marked with a blue 'x'."

Goddard nodded at that. "What's our ETA for the rendezvous?"

"Approximately twenty-one hours. We're traveling parallel to Spung space, so there may be points where we need to detour. It's unlikely, but…"

"Did you send a message back to the station?" Harlan asked suddenly. "About the guys who attacked us?"

"Aslinn tightbeamed something after we finished the slingshot run," Jacie confirmed. "I'm not sure what he said…you can ask him if it's important."

"Nah, just wanted to make sure. You think someone will actually do something about them?"

"They were probably gone by the time we left dock. If they weren't free agents then some kind of retrieval team would have been sent when they didn't return with you, and if they were they'd have even more reason to disappear. And there's a good shot they were working for the Triiad anway."

Harlan nodded at that; it was a little disappointing but not exactly unexpected. Radu seemed to feel the same way, moving to take a seat on the couch. Harlan dropped down on the other arm, while Goddard moved to sit on the bunkbed. "You said something about ship layouts and making a plan?" Harlan asked.

"Aslinn gave me some schematics…how most of the stations are laid out. With only the five of us, we're going to have to rely on stealth rather than force, and the less we have to improvise on the spot the better. If they're still on the Christa we obviously have an advantage, but if they Spung have taken them off the ship we have to be able to do better than guess. I'm not saying we should memorize the schematics," and Harlan heard the warning in his voice, "the last thing we need is to be overconfident. But if we can make reasonable assumptions and narrow down where they might be being held, that's all to the good."

"I'll help where I can," Jacie offered. "It's been a long time, but I'm the only one here who's actually been on a Spung station. And once we're in range of Tathaelon—another station—I know someone who got out a little more recently. Might have some ideas. It'll be seven or eight hours though…we don't need to risk a transmission powerful enough to be intercepted."

"I left the compupad with the information in the other room," Goddard said, standing. "I'll be right back."

"Commander? Harlan and I could look over the schematics with Jacie if you want to rest for a few hours," Radu offered. "Since you didn't…"

His voice trailed off, and Harlan nodded. "Yeah, Commander, you keep telling us we have to be awake and alert when we're making plans. And no offense, but you don't look real awake right now."

Goddard sighed. "Unfortunately, you're right. It's been a few years since I could pull an all-nighter without it having unpleasant effects…and I can't claim I slept so well the night before last, either."

"You might want to pull the bracing straps over, just in case," Jacie commented as he got up. "And don't worry about the schematics; I can pull them up on the computers in here."

"Wake me up in three hours," Goddard told Harlan and Radu firmly as he opened the door. "No more. We have work to do."

Harlan nodded, getting up from the couch and moving to sit in one of the chairs in front of a terminal. Radu tugged at another chair. "Umm…"

"Kick the base," Jacie told him as he moved his own chair over. "That's where the latch is."

"So where are these schematics?" Harlan asked as the terminal came to life.

Jacie reached across, tapping at the screen, and a program came up displaying several sets of station layouts. "Have you done this before? Snuck onto a station?"

"Once," Harlan agreed. "Catalina got kidnapped and sent to a Luff prison satellite and we had to go get her before she was mindwiped."

"Catalina? I don't remember that name."

"She came from the StarAcademy like us," Radu started to explain. "She's an engineer. She switched dimensions with Suzee—her best friend—when the other Lumanian ship exploded. Before that we thought she was imaginary—Suzee, I mean, not Catalina."

"She was invisible, not imaginary," Harlan said with a grin, remembering their arguments. It wasn't as painful to think about now as it had been when she first disappeared. They'd find a way to get her back eventually."

"I remember you mentioning the Lumanians," Jacie said with a frown. "You mentioned them when you were talking about the second time you met Warlord Shank, right? But I don't remember anything about invisible best friends or different dimensions."

"It's complicated," Harlan said with a shrug, ignoring the fact that he didn't understand it himself.

"I'll take your word for it." He turned his attention back to the screen, nodding at the icons displayed. "These are the categories we've gotten complete plans of so far. We've got partials on some others, but it's probably best if you start with these."

"Trading outposts, quarantine stations, asteroid mining camp, refueling stations, perimeter posts, military encampment," Radu read off. "I don't think they'd be taken to a trading outpost or a refueling station. Or a mining camp."

"We can probably rule out perimeter post too," Harlan agreed after a moment. "They'd probably want to take them inside their territory rather than on an edge where there's somewhere to run to. What's a quarantine station? They lock all the sick Spung in one place?"

"No, more like a…detention center, I guess you'd say. Not exactly a prison, but they put ships there coming into the Empire who haven't been approved, or who are heavily armed. And sometimes Spung end up there who are trying to get out. Usually it's a temporary stop."

"That sounds like a good place to start," Harlan said. "That or the military encampments." He selected that option first and was disappointed when only one layout appeared. "This is all you have?"

"They don't exactly leave plans lying around," Jacie returned. "And Az and I haven't really concentrated on getting inside the stations, we probably don't have everything available. I know we don't—Taver'd just about mapped out the entire lower quadrant last time I talked to him. But I haven't heard from him in months and don't have a reliable way to make direct contact, so you're stuck with what we have for now."

Harlan checked the listing for the quarantine stations and was relieved to find half a dozen different layouts. More would have been better, but at least they wouldn't be making guesses from a single diagram. "I think our first issue is going to be finding them."

"Spung keep records," Jacie offered. "Find an open terminal and hack the computers."

"Can you do that?" Radu asked.

"Me? Well…no. Can one of you?"

"I don't think so," Harlan said with a frown. "I know I couldn't…" He looked over at Radu who was shaking his head. "I don't think Commander Goddard could either...Miss Davenport is the one who's good with computers."

"Aslinn said something about tracking their spies and finding records about them," Radu pointed out. "Before you let us out of the cell. Could he do it?"

"I think he does that a little different, but we can ask." He tapped his commlink. "Az?"

"What's up?"

"Do you think you could hack into a Spung network and figure out where their friends are being held? From inside one of their bases, not from the nets out here."

There was silence for a moment, and then, "Yeah, sure Jace, no problem. And right after that, I'll part the Red Sea, cure the common cold, and make your girlfriend fall desperately in love with me."

"Funny."

"Sorry, brother, the best I can do is reroute email and get into some of their low-security databases. Assuming I could even log into one of their base security systems—which I doubt since even if I had a direct terminal we'd have to guess some Spung commander's passwords and our odds for that are just not good—I wouldn't even know where to look."

"All right, just a thought. How's it going up there?"

"5,427 stars, 5,428 stars…"

"So much for that idea," Harlan said with a sigh as Jacie closed the connection. He looked back at the diagrams for a minute. "We can't exactly go wandering around looking in cells and asking if anyone's seen our missing crew."

"Even if they're on the Christa, we'll have the same problem," Radu pointed out after a moment. "Who knows where the Spung would lock them up? We don't even know all the rooms!"

"We need a tracking device or something," Harlan agreed. "Hey…you design sensors, right? Goddard said you got a patent for something."

"Aslinn and I, with a bunch of researchers," Jacie agree cautiously. "It's not like science fiction though…I can't build you something that you can sweep over a station and suddenly know that there's a human on level 10b, room 17."

"What did you do for the patent?" Radu asked.

"Designed a drone that tracked chemical signatures put out by a certain type of eel and followed it back to its lair. Well, I designed the sensor, and Aslinn built the engines—they generate almost no heat so other animals aren't attracted to them—but the other scientists designed the drone body, and the recording and transmitting devices and the rest of it. They're the ones who are analyzing all the data too. But I'm not sure how that applies unless one of your crewmembers secretes some strange chemical…"

Harlan frowned. "Well, I don't think so, but there has to be something different from the Spung—hey, can you build something that measures temperatures?"

"They're called thermometers…we have one in each of the med kits."

"No, I mean from a distance. Rosie—she's Mercurian."

Radu's eyes widened as he caught on. "Her body temperature is almost two hundred degrees...more when she's upset."

"That I could track," Jacie agreed. "We'd still have to be on the station and in the same general vicinity though…a few hundred yards, maybe. Maybe farther…it depends how much hot-running machinery is in the area, and how much heat the force-shields are putting out. I'm not sure how the metal in the area would affect the readings…" He turned to the other terminal and began to pull up information.

"So we've just got to avoid detection by the sensors long enough to do a quick sweep through the cells."

"It looks like there are three monitoring stations," Radu said. "If we just destroy the sensors as we go, one of them is bound to notice."

"A distraction, maybe? There's only the five of us though, and we can't afford to get captured as well." He caught Radu's frown. "What?"

"What if we don't?"

"Don't what?"

"Destroy the sensors."

"What? So they see us sneak in? At least if they just seen them blank out they won't know what's coming."

"No, look." He pointed at the monitoring station. "It's small…probably only one or two guards in each at once. And they're already logged into the computers, watching the cells. That's what all those screens have to be."

"We use their own monitoring stations against them," Harlan said with a grin. "If we figure out when shift change is and take over right after it, we won't have to worry about being interrupted."

"They'll probably still notice something is wrong when we actually have to go in and get the others, but…"

"At least we'll know where we're going; we'll be able to move fast."

"But…" Radu sighed and his face fell. "They're probably watching the monitoring stations too."

"So we kill the sensors and tell them there was a malfunction," Jacie said with a shrug, turning back to them. "And that we called the techs, and we're sure it will be fixed any minute. Sound sufficiently bored and I doubt anybody will think anything about it. We shouldn't be in there long enough to raise suspicion."

"Yeah, but we'd need to know Spung first."

"It's my first language."

"I speak it too," Radu volunteered. "At least, I was taught it in classes."

"Aslinn knows some also, although he's got an accent when he's not careful. Between the three of us, we should be all right."

"So we've got a plan," Harlan said with a grin. "Part of one, anyway. Although we still have to get onto the station somehow. If they're on the Christa, she'll just let us land, but the commander is probably right. They'd probably put the others somewhere that's easy to guard once they get the ship where they want it. Maybe we could…"


	9. The Best Laid Plans

**What May Come**

_Please see chapter 1 for author's notes._

_Thank you to closet caser for your encouragement._

Chapter 9: The Best Laid Plans

Goddard sat up yawning, glancing at the chronometer to confirm that his crew hadn't let him oversleep. They hadn't—it had only been about two hours since he'd laid down on one of the spare bunks in Aslinn and Jacie's bunkroom. Two hours would have to do, he decided after a moment. As much as he needed the rest, he hated the time that it took away from planning a rescue effort. Not that there was all that much they could actually plan at this point, he admitted to himself. Without knowing anything about where their crew was being taken, everything they were doing was guesswork. The best they could do was try to make reasonable guesses and as many contingency plans as possible. And hope that one of them would apply when they found out where the rest of the crew was. Honestly, it was more of an effort to keep their minds engaged in something besides worrying than anything else. He knocked lightly on the door to the command post, and then opened the hatch.

"Hello," Aslinn said, frowning slightly.

"Would it be all right if I…?" he asked, gesturing into the room.

"Oh, sure, come on up. Are you guys done planning for now?"

"Oh, no, I just took a quick break. Didn't sleep at all last night." Goddard dropped into the unoccupied chair, glancing at the panel in front of him. It looked identical to the one in front of Aslinn, sitting off to his right. Their command post was narrow—probably six feet deep at the most, and the control panels took up most of that—but it was nearly as wide as the front of the ship. "I don't think I've ever seen a layout quite like this."

"We're big fans of redundancy. Either of us can perform all shipboard operation from our own panels…normally we split up who's doing what, but if one gets slagged there's a backup right on hand."

"And one of you stays at the controls at all times? That has to be hard with only a crew of two."

"We have an AI, but it is an old ship…we feel better with someone at the helm when the main engines are actually engaged and running at anything above a crawl. Normally both of us would be up here and we'd play a game or something, but he's back going over plans with the other two. Last thing I heard was some crazy scheme about breaking into a Spung computer network and tracing your crew."

"Is that even possible?"

"Not for us. Probably not for any In'Tssai, even if they do have security access. The Spung aren't stupid—arrogant, absolutely, but idiots don't build galactic empires—and they're paranoid enough to track what information people are accessing. If prisoners start disappearing suddenly after a particular person looks up their files…well, what do you think would happen?"

Goddard nodded. "I see your point. I don't suppose you've gotten any information about the others yet?"

"Sorry, nothing yet. There are a couple levels information is passing through…we've heard from all our immediate contacts, and almost all of the secondary, but getting messages from the ones deeper in the empire will take longer. Probably catch a few more about the same time we meet up with the deckship."

He nodded again, standing. "All right. I'd best go help the others. Thank you."

"No problem."

Harlan, Radu, and Jacie were clustered around one of the monitors when he entered the room, gesturing at points on the screen.

"Shut it behind you," Jacie called absently without turning from the image.

"Commander? I thought you were going to rest?"

"I did, Mr. Band, but now we have to make some plans. Have you come up with anything?"

"Well, kind of," Harlan responded after a moment. "If we can get onto one of their stations, we think we can use their own monitoring systems against them."

Goddard moved closer, nodding as Harlan sketched out the details. "That sounds like a solid idea."

"And it should work with whatever kind of station their on," Radu put in. "Since both the quarantine stations and the military bases—at least the one we have to look at—have several individual stations with only a few Spung in each."

"Good work, you three," Goddard agreed.

"Well…" Harlan made a face. "It won't really do us any good if we can't figure out how to get onto the station in the first place. None of us have come up with a good plan for that. I thought faking engine trouble was a good idea—"

"Only if you want to get us all killed," Jacie cut in. "Trust me—they don't care. If we're lucky they'll just hit us with a frag cannon and end it quickly. I we're not lucky, they'll send a boarding party and we'll all end up guests of the empire and needing rescue ourselves. Not going to happen."

"They can't possibly attack every ship that approaches needing repairs," Goddard objected. "They'd decimate their own fleet."

"Well, if we were in a Killcruiser, or an obviously Spung ship we might have a chance," he admitted reluctantly, "but not in an outdated UPP-origin salvage vessel with no ties to the empire. Bad enough that we're probably going to be so deep in the empire that our existence alone will raise questions if we're noticed…actually approaching a military base is suicide."

"Well, we've got to come up with something," Harlan snapped. "I mean, it won't do any good knowing where they are if we can't even figure out a way to get to them!"

Goddard pulled up another chair. "What about disguising the ship as something else? A courier, maybe? Most of them are fairly small, and at least in the UPP there is no specific class of vessels used for shuttling individuals between stations."

"We'd need orders or something though, wouldn't we?" Radu asked. "I m-mean, we'd still need an excuse to be going there."

"We won the lottery and are out to see the galaxy," Harlan said with an attempt at a grin.

Two puzzled faces turned to the human teenager, and Goddard shook his head. "It's a contest back on Earth where people gamble to win large amounts of money. Travel is one of the more common ways to spending the winnings."

"I don't think the Spung have that," Jacie said after a moment. "And I don't think 'seeing the galaxy' is a good enough excuse to come onboard a Spung military installation.

"I was joking. And you haven't come up with anything better."

"What about stealing a ship?" Radu put in hurriedly as Jacie opened his mouth to respond, eyes flashing.

"What?" Jacie turned to stare at him.

"Huh?" Harlan said at the same time.

"You said this one will stand out…let's find one that won't. Maybe one they'd even let dock."

"We can't just steal a ship!" Harlan protested. "They'll kind of notice."

"They'll have half the local patrol after us," Jacie agreed. "That'll get us killed even quicker than his idea!"

"Hey!"

"It's not a bad thought, though," Goddard said after a moment. "Well, I don't think stealing a ship is the best idea, but getting a ship that can travel openly would be a good thing. Surely there are places that rent small transports to civilians for short periods of time, especially in populated areas."

"Probably…I never had much to do with anything outside the military," Jacie responded after a moment.

"Umm…nothing changes the fact that we're human and Andromedan—and Ashrach," Harlan pointed out. "The Spung might not be too thrilled about renting to us, even short-range craft."

"I can't afford to let them see me, and I know Aslinn doesn't feel much like showing his face either. I'm fairly sure we're developing a 'malfunctioning' viewscreen the moment we enter their territory. A strategically placed cloak as we change ships and so as far as they're concerned, we will be Spung."

"We'll need credit or something to get a ship," Goddard said after a moment. "Unless you have a credit account with the empire?"

"Az and I don't, but…I should be getting a transmission from some friends of ours in a few hours. They might be able to help out there."

"Or maybe the people on this deckship we're meeting can help," Harlan put in. "You said that's what it transports—short-range craft. Maybe they'll be willing to loan us one."

"Centauri? Loan?"

Goddard winced at that. Centauri merchants weren't known for their generosity, and they were known for being…less than scrupulous in their dealings, even in the UPP where there were an abundance of fair-trade laws. And they were fanatic about collecting on debts. Even with proof that it had been one of his doppelgangers who'd ordered all those El'ehria trees—and what the man had planned on doing with 527 trees that produced fruit only edible to insects on Galara III he'd never been able to figure out—it had taken two years to clear the mess off his credit reports. He was still receiving the occasional statement listing his current 'balance' with them…he'd gotten one the day before they'd boarded the Christa. "Let's see what our other options are first—although if you don't mind, I'm curious about what this favor is that they're transporting us to make up for."

Jacie shrugged. "We saved the captain's wife. They marry to cement trade alliances so her dying before the ceremony would have messed things up. It was awhile back… maybe a half cycle? Anyway, Az and I had just gotten back on station and were starting to unload the cargo bays when all the proximity alarms went crazy. Everyone dove for the nearest compression chamber or open ship. The Centauri delegation was docked beside us…I guess they were about to undock since they were all clustered around the ship…but for some reason their hatch wasn't opening. They ended up making a dash for the Rockhopper, and about ten seconds after we got the cargo bay blast door locked, the hull was pierced. According to the official reports, a ship that couldn't handle the stress tried to take the slingshot launch and one of the engines was torn off and flung into the station." His eyes went distant for a moment. "The few people who'd been in the bay and hadn't made it to shelter were killed."

"You think it might have been on purpose?" Harlan asked. "That the delegation was on the dock and their door wouldn't open just when something happened to puncture the hull?"

"Probably." He shrugged. "I've never had much to do with the Centauri, but everyone hears the stories. The end result was the captain owes us a not-insubstantial favor he'll be glad to pay off with a little transport work, but I don't want to push our luck."

"You think he'd betray us to the Spung?" Radu asked worridly.

"I don't think so…but I wouldn't mention the fact that you're searching for your one-of-a-kind spaceship and being pursued by Warlord Shank either."

"So, we hook up with the Centauri, get towed into Spung space where we can rent some kind of transport shuttle, use the transport shuttle to get onto whatever base the others are being held on, and save the crew by using the Spung's own equipment against them," Harlan said with a grin. "We can do that, no problem."

"Um, people, I think we have a problem…" Even over the speakers, they could hear the strain in Aslinn's voice. "I have a Spung scoutship closing fast. It's been waiting here; the engines were powered down so sensors wouldn't pick it up until we were close. They're hailing—"

"I'm coming, don't answer until I get there." Jacie turned to the three from the Christa. "Strap in. And remember, the escape pod is through there."


	10. The First Engagement

**What May Come**

_Please see chapter 1 for author's notes._

_WARNING—Violence in this chapter. Nothing too graphic, but you've been warned._

Chapter 10: The First Engagement

Harlan and Radu checked the wheel catches on the chairs they were in, while Goddard moved to sit on the couch. "What do you think Jacie and Aslinn are going to do?" Harlan asked.

"Lie through our teeth," Aslinn responded over the comm.. "Jacie's teeth, anyway. He sounds like a Spung. And this is one of those cases where having a ship that looks like a piece of junk should work for us…what harm could we possibly do anyone?"

"Comm system is going to one-way so I can answer these guys," Jacie reported. "You'll be able to hear us, but we won't hear you."

Radu bit his lip in concentration as hisses and snarls came through the speakers. "They want to know what we're doing here…why they're taking a salvage ship into a more settled area instead of out where there would be work."

"Have they got a good excuse?"

"Repairs…the engines need special—I'm not sure of the next term, covering or plating, maybe?—because they're so old. They want a visual…Jacie says the communication array was damaged in a solar storm. They…" he trailed off, feeling himself go pale.

"What?" Goddard asked.

"Th-they say they have reports of fugitives being transported out of Spung territory through this sector of space…they're requesting permission to board."

"That's not good," Harlan commented. "I'm guessing they wont take no for an answer." The ship shuddered as a transport tunnel locked on. "Apparently not."

"Change of plans," Aslinn's voice rang over the comm. "We're back on two-way. Radu, you speak Spung?"

"Yes."

"Good, come up here, you're now our translator."

"What about Jacie?"

"I'm a runaway slave…it's an automatic death sentence if they catch me. So I'm going to be hiding for the foreseeable future. Commander, it might not be a bad idea for you to join me. You look military."

"Where are we supposed to hide?"

"In the secondary command post…I'll show you when I get there."

"Harlan, if you'd pull up a game on one of the computers and do your best to look utterly bored when the Spung are taking their tour…" Aslinn suggested.

Jacie came into the room as Radu unhooked his harness, preparing to go to command. Ignoring the trio, he headed for the trunk on the far side of the cabinet. Some sort of secret hatch was built above it, and with a few precise taps a blast door none of them had seen swung open. He nodded to Goddard. "Come on, we only have a few minutes to get settled in."

Radu heard the hatch seal as he opened the door to command, and caught Jacie's faint explanation about redundant setups and how a command post build on the front of a ship was going to be the first thing targeted so they'd better have a backup somewhere. "What do you need me to do?"

Aslinn turned and gave him a grim smile. "How fluent are you?"

"I don't know…I learned in classes, but I've never used it with a Spung before."

"Great. Keep it simple, I guess…I understand quite a bit, but I can't speak all that well. Makes my tongue itch. If anyone asks, you're Jacie, my co-pilot, and Harlan is hitching a ride with us to visit relatives. Stupid excuse, but the manifests we have on file are pretty clear—two crewmembers." He glanced at the panel in front of him. "They're at the outer airlock, requesting permission to enter. Wonder what they'd do if I denied?" Fingers ran lightly over the sling he still wore, and then he unbuckled it quickly and tucked it into the nearest trunk. He didn't take the brace off, but the injury was much less obvious. "The last thing we need to do is give them questions," he explained. "Shall we go greet our guests?"

Sparing a moment to wish he could refuse, Radu nodded and moved to follow him out the side door and into the hallway. "Do you know how long these inspections take?"

"I've never heard of a ship this small getting inspected before…it's always the bigger cargo ships they target. Things that cost the empire money." He shrugged. "Here goes nothing."

The main airlock swung open, and Radu fought to keep the surprise—and horror—off his face. Two Spung stood in the doorway, both slightly larger than Aslinn. He was familiar enough with their rank badges to place one as a commander and one as an engineering lieutenant—that one held some sort of scanner, and Radu hoped that blast shielding would be enough to confound it. The third figure was smaller, no bigger than Rosie. With blonde hair tied back, hanging nearly to her waist, and spiral ears. Or at least they'd been spirals once…deep, old scars cut across the whorls, and the tip of one was missing. She stood slightly behind the Spung in charge, staring straight ahead and showing no emotion. Radu forced himself to concentrate on the situation at hand as Aslinn apparently realized that he wasn't in shape to form a greeting and invited the three onto the Rockhopper himself. His accent wasn't too terrible, Radu noted, but then again it hadn't been a particularly complicated statement to make. The Spung turned their attention to him, and he tried to keep his voice steady as he introduced himself. If the Spung were surprised to see a human and an Andromedan as the crew, they hid it well—the only expressions he could make out were distaste and, at least towards himself, condescension.

They spent a few more minutes going over the details of their 'travel plans', Radu translating Aslinn's words to the Spung and theirs to him, although he suspected Aslinn understood most of what was being said considering the speed he was responding with, and at least one of the Spung probably spoke Standard. The Andromedan girl…she hadn't made a response yet.

"If you'll come this way…"

The tour was beginning, and he fell into step behind Aslinn, allowing the Spung to follow. Having them at his back was making his shoulders twitch, but he couldn't change positions in the narrow hallway. There wasn't room for them all in command, although the lieutenant insisted that they open the door to the escape pod so he could scan inside. Apparently the blast shielding did disrupt the sensors. The next stop was the bunkroom, and the commander looked decidedly suspicious at the multiple beds. Aslinn dismissed it, saying they sometimes did short-range shuttle tours, but Radu didn't think he looked convinced. The lieutenant's scan of the bathroom and attached escape pod seemed a lot more detailed. And then they were moving on to the rec room.

Harlan looked up as the group entered…Radu didn't recognize the game on the screen in front of him, but then he didn't play video games often. "How's it goi…" Harlan trailed off to stare at the Andromedan girl for a few moments. "Uh, going, how's it going?"

Aslinn shrugged, keeping his attention on the Spung. "This is our galley and rec room…keeps us occupied when we're on runs."

"What is your function here?" the lieutenant asked Harlan.

"We're giving him a ride," Radu put in as soon as he told the human what they were asking, before he could make up one of his complicated excuses.

The commander frowned. "Is that a normal function for this ship?"

"Hey, we're friends and they were heading that way anyway," Harlan responded after Radu translated.

"Indeed." He looked as if he was going to say more when his communicator chimed. "Tseros."

"Commander, we're having trouble scanning inside their cargo bay. Matai went down to engineering to—" there was another word that Radu didn't recognize, probably relating to the ship's sensors—"but I think you'll have to do it manually."

Harlan raised an eyebrow at Radu, who repeated the part about the ship not being able to scan inside the cargo bays and needing the commander and the others to do it while they were onboard.

"That's not actually possible," Aslinn replied. "The cargo bay isn't pressurized…I can't open the hatches without making whichever of us is on the other side greasy spots on the far wall."

"Then you'll have to open the bay doors to space," the Spung said with a smug grin, clearly expecting Aslinn to refuse.

"That would be acceptable."

Disappointment flicked across his face—obviously he'd been hoping that's where people were hiding. And then the Andromedan girl spun towards the back wall, when the hidden room was. "Heartbeat!"

Radu didn't even see Aslinn move, but a weapon of some sort appeared in his hands and a pulse from it caught the commander in the chest and sent him to the ground before anyone could react. The girl flung herself across the room with a snarl, and he dove sideways. "Jace!"

Harlan may not have understood what the girl had shouted, but Aslinn's intent had been clear, and he spun to kick the lieutenant's weapon out of his hand before he could use it.

Radu turned away from that fight as a second kick caught the man in the stomach and sent him to his knees. Harlan would be fine. Aslinn on the other hand…he'd lost his weapon in the first dive, and was now doing his best to dodge the girl's charges. Either she didn't have a weapon or she'd forgotten about it—Radu wasn't going to argue the point. He maneuvered behind her, aiming a blow at the nerve cluster at the base of her neck. It never landed—she came around with a backhand that sent him to the ground, and followed it up with a kick to the ribs.

A chair bouncing off her shoulder distracted her…must have been Harlan, Radu thought as he struggled to his feet. Aslinn was over on the other side of the room. Unfortunately, he was the one she focused her attention on, and the redhead threw himself over the couch as she flung the table in his direction.

"Leave him alone!" With the nastiest snarl Radu had heard yet, Jacie jerked Aslinn behind him and glared at the girl. A very short, very brutal, fight followed…just about every piece of furniture in the rec room took damage, the computer consoles were rendered unusable—assuming anyone could figure out which pieces of scrap had once been computers in the first place—and Goddard and Aslinn had been forced into the hidden room while Radu and Harlan crouched as close to the galley wall as they could to avoid the combatants. But in the end it was Jacie who forced himself upright…slowly, but he made it…and the girl who remained on the floor with her neck bent at an unnatural angle.

"Jace?" Aslinn asked worriedly.

"I-I'm all right. Just…stay back right now." He shook his head.

"Yeah, no, that's a bad plan. Sit down, brother." With some effort, Aslinn lifted the couch back upright, and then glanced at the body of the Spung commander lying in front of it, and the girl's off to one side. "On second thought…bunkroom." He glanced at the lieutenant's crumpled form as they moved towards the hatch. "He dead?"

"Just unconscious," Harlan replied.

"Toss him in the escape pod and seal the door, just in case, all right?"

"Are you two all right?" Goddard asked as the two of them moved into the other room.

"I'm all right. You okay, buddy? Looked like she took you down pretty hard."

Radu rubbed his jaw. "I think it's just a bruise. My ribs are sore, but…I don't think they're broken."

"If they have a medical scanner, we should make sure of that. Why don't you two go check, and I'll put all three of them in the pod."

Radu knew he should offer to help, but…the sight of the dead Spung didn't bother him a great deal. Of all the dead bodies to see, better a Spung than anyone else. But the Andromedan girl disturbed him. "I didn't think she'd hear them," he commented quietly as they moved to join the other two in the bunkroom.

"Hm?"

"The blast shielding distorts sounds, muffles them, but it doesn't stop them. I could hear their heartbeats fine, if I concentrated. But her ears were so scarred up…I didn't think she'd hear them."

"It looks worse than it actually is," Jacie commented quietly from his seat on the far bunk, where Aslinn was cleaning a gash on his shoulder. Probably from when his body had been used to crush one of the monitors. "I mean, we probably can't hear half what you can, but it doesn't stop us from functioning."

"We?" Radu asked.

"They did it to all of us, after we hatched."

"But then, your ears must be…" Harlan trailed off at Jacie's confused look.

"Yes." He pushed the headband aside to reveal think scars cutting across the spirals. "It's the easiest way to identify an Ashrach."

"Why did you think I asked to see your ears?" Aslinn asked absently, moving on to a nasty bruise on Jacie's forehead.

"I…I guess I didn't think about it."

"But when you knew he was Andromedan, you yelled for Jacie and somehow he heard you," Harlan objected.

Aslinn frowned, and then his expression cleared. "The 'if you can hear me' comment? I was talking to an open commlink, I just didn't know whether Jacie had his end turned on. Did you want the scanner?"

The four of then were silent for a few moments while Radu was checked for broken ribs—a negative, fortunately—and Aslinn finished his ministrations. At which point Jacie handed him a sling with a frown. "You're lucky it didn't break again."

"Hey, I might have banged every other portion of my body, but I was careful not to land on that wrist." He tried to grin at Jacie, who tried to grin in return, but both expressions were lacking.

Radu couldn't think of anything to say in the silence that followed, and apparently neither could Harlan. The awkwardness lasted several moments, until Goddard came in to join them, holding the commander's communications device. "I think we'd better figure out what to do about that scoutship fast…this started beeping a moment ago."


	11. Invasion

**What May Come**

_Please see chapter 1 for author's notes. Real life has kept me offline for several weeks, but chapters 13 and 14 will be coming shortly (as soon as I get them beta'd)._

_WARNING—More violence…_

Chapter 11: Invasion

As if in response to Goddard's comment, the communicator chimed again.

"Damn, we've got to tell them something," Aslinn muttered.

Jacie reached for it. "What is—was—his name? Seris?"

"Tseros," Aslinn corrected. He frowned at his friend, and if Harlan was seeing faint trembling in Jacie's hands and eyes that weren't quite focusing, he knew the redhead was too. "Maybe not you, brother…you're kinda shaky right now. Sure you're up to imitating a warlord?"

He made a face, then held the device out to Radu. "Pro'ly not."

"Wait…Radu doesn't sound anything like that guy," Harlan interrupted. "They're going to know something's up as soon as he opens his mouth."

"Harlan's right," the commander agreed. "We need to buy ourselves some time. Aslinn, can you open the cargo bay doors to space so they can continue their scans? If they ask, tell them the commander ordered it, and now he's checking…somewhere that their communications array can't reach, and we'll tell him they're trying to contact him."

"Yeah…that's easy enough." He spent a moment in command, and then returned. "We have ten minutes before they open fire."

Harlan half rose. "What did you say to them!" Radu caught his elbow and jerked him back down suddenly, on the heels of a low hiss from Jacie. The Ashrach boy was glaring at him. "Huh?"

"Just…stay down," Aslinn said. "And I didn't say anything except what Commander Goddard suggested…apparently it's required that survey teams remain in constant contact with their base ship."

"That makes sense," Goddard agreed. "Well, I was hoping for more time, but it will have to do."

"Commander, do you have a plan?"

"Actually, we're going to use your idea, Mr. Radu."

"M-my idea?"

"Ah, man, we're going to steal their ship, aren't we?"

"You're going to do what?" Aslinn demanded. "That's nuts!"

"Unless you can come up with a better option. Harlan, Radu, you both should know the theory behind this."

He seemed to be gaining confidence as he spoke, but Harlan didn't remember covering theft-of-enemy-crafts in any class he'd taken. And while he might not have been a stellar student, he suspected something like that would have caught his attention. "Um, commander…?"

"It's a standard boarding drill…only this time we'll have surprise on our side. Three of us—" and his face seemed to fall suddenly, but he took a deep breath and continued—"Three of us will take the transport tunnel back to their ship. When they see three shapes coming—and the distortion in the tunnel should prevent a clear visual—they should assume it's their team coming back. Although if the airlock is sealed…" he trailed off.

"We could send a message first," Harlan put in. "Something about an equipment malfunction…we could tell them that's why the comms aren't working. So they're coming back to get them fixed. I guess that doesn't make sense though…they could just use your command post."

Radu shook his head. "No, that will work. We can just tell them that since scans were complete, they decided to return directly instead of wasting time on transmission."

Aslinn nodded. "I still think you're crazy, but…I haven't got anything better. For what it's worth, if you can pull it off that ship should fit in the cargo bay for transport. Be a tight fit…those engines will be scraping the ceiling panels…but if one of you is a competent pilot it's possible."

"So how many people do you think are onboard? I mean, three of us against 20 of them…" Not that Harlan really thought there were 20 Spung on the little scout ship, but he'd feel better having some idea what they were facing. And being able to account for the entire crew instead of having nightmares about a man they'd missed hiding in a closet with a pulse rifle.

"Crew compl'ment is six," Jacie spoke for this first time since they'd begun planning. "I'm not sure whether they'd have counted the Ashrach crew or not, so you're looking at two or three. I'm…I can fight, 'f you want me along." He caught a glare from Aslinn and gave an unnerving laugh. "I can. I'm even good at it."

Harlan reluctantly agreed with that assessment. He'd started karate at the age of six, right after his father left to fight in the war, and after the man had been killed had thrown himself into his practices with ideas of becoming tough enough to take on the entire Andromedan race. He'd grown out of that idea—or he thought he had until Radu had come to the StarAcademy—but he'd kept studying and had learned pieces from other disciplines as well. Jacie's technique didn't bear much of a resemblance to any of them, and Harlan doubted he'd ever be able to pick up any pointers from the other boy—not if he didn't want half the bones in his body shattered, anyway—but it had been effective. He shook his head. He'd still prefer if it was Radu watching his back.

"The three of us are familiar with each other's moves," Goddard replied after a moment. "Thank you for the offer, but this isn't the best time to start mixing up teams."

Aslinn looked relieved at that. He'd obviously known from the start that his arm would disqualify him—he might be able to fire a blaster quickly, but if it came to hand-to-hand combat he would be at a distinct disadvantage. "I'll get you all sidearms." He tugged Jacie's arm lightly. "You want to take the helm now? Worst comes to worst, we aren't going to have much time to react. I'll be up as soon as we're ready to transmit."

"Hm? Oh, sure."

Both of them went through to command, Aslinn returning a moment later with three basic blasters. "I assume you're familiar with their use?"

"Point and shoot," Harlan said with a shrug. He'd always done well in target practice.

"What setting level should we be using?" Goddard asked with a frown at his student. "Two to knock out, three to kill?"

"One to knock out, two to kill," Aslinn corrected. "Assuming it's a shot to the chest or head."

Radu dropped his setting immediately. "What does three do?"

"As defined by the friend who got us these, three is the setting for 'crispy critter'. I've never tried it." He shook his head. "Not much time left. If they fire on us, we'll do our best not to blow up the ship with you still on it, but…do us all a favor and take them out before they press the trigger."

Goddard nodded, standing. "Transmit the message as soon as we're in the tunnel, all right? If they're expecting their team, hopefully they won't look too closely."

"Sure."

Harlan glanced over at Radu as they stepped into the tunnel. "You ready for this?"

"Yeah. Are you?"

Well, if the other boy wasn't going to admit how scared he was—and anyone who'd known him for more than five minutes would be able to tell he was terrified, despite the determined set to his jaw—Harlan wasn't about to either. "Course."

They walked in silence, Goddard setting the pace. When they reached the Spung airlock, he tapped the entry panel lightly, and all three breathed a sigh of relief as it began to cycle. "Band, left, Radu, right, I have the center."

Harlan nodded, not bothering to give verbal confirmation. They'd done this drill before often enough that they knew what to do. The only thing missing was Bova at their back, predicting the dire consequences likely to result if they ever tried the maneuver in a 'real' battle situation. Except this was a real battle, and Bova was one of the reasons they were doing it. The hatch opened, and he froze for a moment. They were staring directly into the Spung command post. Later he'd wonder why he'd been so surprised—it was the way the Christa was set up as well—but having direct access from space to the control center of your ship was definitely non-standard in a military vessel. Even a tiny one like this. A blast from the commander's weapon snapped him back to the present, and he fired a moment after Radu.

The commander's blast caught the pilot directly in the chest as he rose to call a warning, and he fell hard. The second Spung had been at the one of the consoles directly behind helm, but he'd launched himself over the farthest one from the airlock as soon as he saw them. Radu's shot barely clipped him and Harlan's missed entirely.

"Cover!" Commander Goddard called, diving behind the near console flanking helm and aiming a shot in the direction the crewmember had gone.

Harlan scrambled to put the helm between him and the Spung. "Where is he?"

Radu was crouched on the far side of the console mirroring the one their opponent was hiding behind…they faced sideways, inward at the rest of the command post. "Straight across from me...he's coming around!"

Harlan carefully stuck his head out, weapon ready, hoping to catch the man as he moved. A blast struck the panel just above his temple, and he jerked back. "I can't get a shot!"

"Radu, keep firing…keep his head down!"

Judging by the sharp sounds that followed, Radu was complying, and Harlan began to move around again. His shoulder burned suddenly and he fell back. "Hit!"

"How bad?" Commander Goddard asked.

"I think just a graze…" but man did it hurt. "Let's get this guy."

"I think I got him," Radu answered. "He came up pretty far that time."

"Are you sure?"

"He's not moving anymore, but I don't know whether he ducked or fell."

"You two, stay in position," Goddard ordered.

Harlan gripped his weapon, gazing cautiously around the helm. The commander was moving slowly towards the Spung's location—a perfect target if the man was trying to trick them. He knew Radu would be covering from his position as well. The commander slipped carefully around the near side of the console—Harlan's weapon jerked before he even realized that his finger had tightened on the trigger, and the Spung fell back to the ground.

"All clear," the commander announced a moment later. "He's unconscious. Let's check the rest of the ship. Mr. Radu?"

"I don't think there's anyone else here," he said after a moment. "The engines are all around us though…"

Harlan nodded at that. Unlike the Rockhopper, with its engines attached to fins off the side, the Spung scoutship was much more compact with a powerful main engine built directly above the living quarters and maneuvering thrusters below. He could feel the vibration of the idling engines through the floor. "So let's check it out."

"Let me check your arm first," Goddard replied, moving towards him.

"It's just a graze." Now that the initial burn had faded the pain wasn't as sharp—still there, and energy burns were never pleasant, but not as bad as it had been.

The commander agreed with his assessment after a moment. "When we get back to the Rockhopper, we'll pick up a first aid and bandage it. Mr. Radu, anything?"

Radu had moved to stand by the door leading into the rest of the ship, listening for anything moving on the other side, and it took him a moment to reorient himself at the commander's words. "I still haven't heard any more heartbeats."

"Well, let's play it safe anyway. I'll go first, Mr. Radu after me, and Mr. Band will cover our backs."

"Should we lock them up first?" Radu asked, nodding to the two Spung.

"We should, but without knowing the layout of the ship we don't have anywhere to put them." He paused, glancing at what were obviously escape pod entrances. "Let's put them in one of them. It's not exactly secure, but it's the best option we've got."

"Besides, they aren't waking up anytime soon," Harlan added. It only took a moment to move the unconscious bodies, and then he fell in behind Radu as the commander shifted his grip on his weapon and moved to open the hatch into the ship. The first room wasn't much bigger than the Rockhopper's bathroom, but at a guess from the mats on the floor and a cabinet of handheld weaponry it was some sort of workout room. It had two doors leading from it besides the one to command—one to a galley even smaller than the workout room, and one to a bunkroom. It, at least, was bigger than the workout room, but not by much. Two sets of narrow bunks—apparently only four crewmen on this ship could sleep at once—a cabinet with uniforms and a few personal effects, and a tiny shower and bathroom. Exits from there led down into the lower engine room which apparently doubled as secondary command, and one to a smaller room above that gave access to the main engines. "Man, Spung must not suffer from claustrophobia…I'd go nuts stuck in a place this little with five other people for who knows how long."

"Scout ships are designed to be small and fast," Goddard said with a shrug. "I was posted on one for a few months before the war…it was a little bigger than this, but not much. You get used to it."

"Maybe," Harlan said doubtfully.

"We better get back to the Rockhopper and tell Aslinn and Jacie we've got the ship," Radu put in. "They said it would fit in the cargo bay if one of us could fly it in, but if we just disconnect the bridge without giving them some warning first…"

"Yeah, that would be bad." He shrugged. "It's not the Christa, but it can't be that hard to figure out the controls. We better take those two Spung back with us when we go to explain though. We can put them in the pod with the others."

"Good idea, Mr. Band."


	12. Rumor Has It

**What May Come**

_Please see chapter 1 for author's notes._

Chapter 12: Rumor Has It

Goddard glanced around the Spung command center, and then reached out and moved one of the helm controls. Nothing happened—the engines had been powered down as soon as the ship was in the Rockhopper's holding bay—but it was nice to be on a ship that he could pilot if he chose. Harlan and Radu were back in the bunkroom, looking through more of the Spungs' things. After hauling the two unconscious Spung back to the Rockhopper—and engaging in a short argument with Aslinn about whether they should be killed outright or just locked up—they and the other unconscious Spung had been taken on a short spacewalk to one of the escape pods inside the cargo bay where it would be impossible for them to escape anywhere but into a depressurized bay. Goddard originally thought they'd then be ejected and left to drift, but as Aslinn pointed out, as soon as the Spung recovered them word about the stolen scout ship would be spread and it wouldn't be much use anymore. So for now the three of them were prisoners. The air supply was still coming from the Rockhopper's filters, so they'd survive, it just wouldn't be a pleasant trip. Then had come the discussion about how to use the scout ship. They'd all agreed that it needed a crew just in case a fast escape was necessary, and since Jacie and Aslinn weren't going to leave their own ship, the three from the Christa had moved what little they had over to it. Goddard had considered leaving Harlan on the Rockhopper—the scout ship really only needed a pilot and a navigator and while the burn on his shoulder wasn't bad, he was in some pain—but aside from the objections he knew the human teenager would have, he didn't like the idea of splitting up his crew. And of the two of them, Harlan was the better pilot. He could have stayed on the Rockhopper himself, but the idea of sending students into battle alone…better they stay together. So they'd disconnected the spaceway between the Rockhopper and the scout, and Harlan had flown the little ship into the holding bay. It had been a close fit, but they'd made it. Now the only way to travel between the two ships was a spacewalk through the bay, but the communications array hadn't been difficult to figure out. In fact, on the main screen he could see Aslinn doing something complicated to the panel in front of him. Probably playing a game.

"Dahlkresh to Rockhopper, do you read me, Rockhopper?"

"Cleo?" Aslinn's head turned sharply toward one of the side screens. "Is this a secure frequency?"

An Andromedan—well, probably Ashrach—girl's image was transferred to the main screen. "It is on my end…at least the best I can mana—" She broke off with a nasty snarl.

"Easy, Cleo, we know it's a Spung ship. It's sitting in our cargo hold. Long story. Why the heck are you risking yourself calling us so far outside you're secure zone?"

"Emergency…we're heading out in less than an hour, and we've heard a rumor we thought you might want to hear. Where's Jacie?"

"Napping. We had a little run-in with a Spung scout group. They had an Ashrach with them."

"He didn't…"

"Yeah. I killed her controller, but she was too far gone. And when she went after me his training took over."

"Damn. Is he going to be all right?"

"Yeah, he's just shook." Aslinn shook his head. "Commander, why don't you get Harlan and Radu, and Cleo can tell us all at once?"

Goddard nodded, keying the intercom with a last glace at Cleo's image. He had a bad feeling that the entire resistance was organized and run by children. "Gentlemen, report to command, we may have some information."

Harlan and Radu appeared a moment later. "Who're you?" the human blurted.

"Name's Cleo. In'Tssai, and partners with Ty and Chaya. You don't know who they are, and if it's all the same to you, we'll keep it that way."

"Do you know something about the others?" Radu asked.

"The Spung have captured a telepath of unknown origin and are taking her to Vartris." She glanced down at something in her hand. "She's looks like a human in her late teens, and has dark hair with streaks dyed into it. Doesn't say how they actually got their hands on her, but she apparently takes control of her victims by projecting something… purple?...into them." She made a face. "I'm blaming that one on Chaya's notetaking skills."

"No, that's right," Goddard assured her. "It's how she projects her consciousness."

"Huh. If you say so." She shook her head. "According to this, so far she's taken over the commander of the ship they took her on and made him shoot up their command post—that's a neat trick—and then when they finally got her into a cell she got the guard to look her in the eye and then…he beat himself unconscious with a dinner bowl? Chaya, am I reading this correctly?"

"All right, Suzee," Harlan said with a grin. "At least she's okay. So where's Vartris, and how soon can we get there?"

"Don't get happy just yet. Technically Vartris is a quarantine station, but it's got seriously bad reputation. And after the last stunt she pulled—they caught her on her way to the engine room—they taped up her eyes so she wouldn't be able to do anything like that again." Cleo glanced offscreen. "That's all I have, and Ty's signaling it's time for us to move out. Good luck. Tell Jacie we all say hello."

"Luck to you too, and hello to the others." The connection was cut, and Aslinn nodded to Goddard and the others. "All right, we've got a target. Assuming this is one of your crewmembers."

"The description fits," Goddard said with a nod, "and I don't think they'd have found two people who use that form of telepathy, at least not within the last day."

"What did she mean, about Vartris?" Radu asked.

"People go in and don't come back out, and a couple of the nastier bioweapons have been traced to that sector. I'll check with Jacie when he wakes up…I don't think we've ever gotten anyone inside to confirm their origin, but there might be someone."

"Where is it?" Harlan asked again, this time with considerably more urgency.

Aslinn pulled a starchart onto the viewscreen. "Not far…several hours' travel if we push it. Looks like we'll miss our window with the Centauri though. Make it damn difficult to get into the empire."

"We can't just leave her there!" Harlan objected.

"And we won't, Mr. Band. What route are the Centauri taking? Could we meet up with them later?"

"Why would we do that?" Jacie slipped into the second command chair, smacking Aslinn lightly on the back of his head as he passed. "You were supposed to wake me up an hour ago."

"You needed the rest. Just got word from Cleo—think we know where their telepath is. Unfortunately, getting to Vartris is going to make us miss the deckship unless the Centuari don't mind us joining up with them inside the empire."

"They won't like tha—Vartris?"

"Afraid so. She's got a new variant on telepathy…you know they'd want to study her. Besides which, she's given them a rough time. Do we have anyone in there?"

"Not anymore, I don't think…that's where they took Kimat."

Aslinn winced. "Damn, I forgotten. Don't think we can count on him for help."

"His spirit, maybe." Jacie looked at the starchart. "Another place to meet the Centauri., assuming we survive that long…."

"There," Radu said, gesturing. "It gives us a planet to shield us from the Spung if we need it, and it's not far out of their way."

"Short window, though…less than thirty-six hours for travel and rescue." Aslinn shrugged, glancing at his partner. "We're game if you are."

Goddard nodded. "Then let's go. Should we launch the scout now, or wait until we're closer?"

"We've got the fuel to haul you…probably better not to raise any questions."

"Are we going to use the engine trouble excuse to dock?" Harlan asked.

"I think it's our best bet, although…Aslinn, Jacie, how much firepower does this ship have?"

Jacie gaped at him. "What? You can't open fire on a station, they'd obliterate you!"

"I don't plan on opening fire on them, but we'd need weapons if we were escorting a suspicious ship…"

"You want to use us to get onto the station?" Aslinn shook his head. "The second we dock, they'll board and arrest us. Well, arrest me, kill Jacie."

"So don't dock," Harlan said. "We'll tell them we're taking your ship to…some military base in that direction, and we've started having engine trouble. Hopefully they'll keep their guns focused on you and we can sneak onto the station and grab Suzee before they notice something is wrong. And then…fly really fast?"

"Well, I'll go with the first part of the plan. If you claim the repairs you're doing on the engines are urgent no one will comment about no one from the ship taking leave time on station. Or even exiting the ship. But the last part…" Jacie shook his head. "We might—might—be able to outrun a light cruiser, if we get a head start. Speed is about the only thing our ship has. But if they've got multiple ships shooting at us, someone is bound to get lucky. And with the added mass of the scoutship…"

"So we won't reenter the bay until we get to safety. The engines here are huge…we should be able to keep up."

Harlan nodded at Radu's comment, gesturing at a blurred mass on the starchart. "This is an asteroid belt, right? If we get there, we should be able to hide the ships."

"It can't be an asteroid belt," Goddard said with a frown. "It's huge."

"Up until half-a-dozen years ago it was a binary planet system," Aslinn said with a shrug. "The first planet-buster tests were done there."

Goddard blanched. "The Spung have ships that can destroy planets!"

"Yeah. You didn't know that?" Aslinn shrugged. "They take a huge amount of energy and they aren't what I'd call stable—the one that took out the second planet apparently exploded right after it fired—but there are a couple of them flying around."

"This—the UPP needs to know about this! This could be a major threat!"

"Tell them when you see them," he replied. "Our information nets don't go that far."

Radu was still studying the starcharts. "If you can get the Centauri to pick us up here…"

Jacie nodded. "I'll pass along the message…hopefully they'll be willing to alter course. Definitely canceling our debt with them though." He made a face. "And all we have to do is make it to the asteroid belt, lose Spung pursuit, and then cross the belt and rendezvous without being noticed. After a daring rescue form one of their nastier stations. Radu, think you and me better talk."

"Why?"

"Because I'm over here…you know, one of the prisoners you'll be escorting? And someone on that ship is going to have to pass as a Spung commander. Unless one of your crewmates is hiding their fluency in the language…."

Radu nodded at that. "I…there's a screen in the galley, I'll try opening a communication channel from there."

Goddard nodded, dismissing him. "Mr. Band, I suggest making yourself as familiar as possible with the capabilities of this ship. You and I will attempt a weapons simulation as soon as I figure out how."

"If you give me direct access to your computers, I'll keep looking for access codes," Aslinn said. "The Spung don't generally use them—they tend to rely on ship numbers for identification and judge the legitimacy of a mission by the arrogance of the commander—but you're going to have to claim this is covert ops to get around the lack of a flight plan and that we might need codes for."

"Of course." Goddard glanced down at the panel in front of them. They'd found several indelible markers in one of the Spung cabinets—apparently one of them had an artistic bent—and had been using them to label the controls as they figured them out. It wasn't that difficult…checking the control manuals in the computer was more helpful than asking Thelma usually was, and like the UPP the Spung had a universal translation program. "All right, I think that does it." Radu had apparently managed to connect from the terminal in the galley—Jacie was holding a hissed conversation with one of the smaller screens. "How long until we reach the station?"

"Jacie just laid in the course…four hours before we reach the point where you'll need to launch the scout ship and start 'escorting' us, two more before we actually reach the station."

"All right. At some point in the next four hours, I'd like you, Radu, and Harlan to get some sleep. Jacie and I have both napped, but we all need to be at our best when we start this charade."

Aslinn nodded. "Understood. You could stand to rest again also…you were in battle not that long ago and your last nap only lasted a couple hours."

"I'll consider it if I've gotten accustomed to the weapons systems here." He could use the sleep too, and he knew it, but things were coming to a head. Harlan and Radu had plenty of up-to-date flight experience, but he hadn't fired a laser cannon since the war, and the only simulations he'd done since being demoted and sent to the StarAcademy were ones designed to teach students the basics, not mimic actual battle conditions. And the fact that he was going to be dealing with an alien weapons system rather than one he still had some reflexive abilities on wasn't going to help.


	13. To the Rescue

**What May Come**

_Please see chapter 1 for author's notes._

Chapter 13: To the Rescue

Harlan spun the scout ship on its access, allowing Goddard to fire the more powerful forward lasers at the cruiser that had locked on from behind. It felt a little strange to be firing on UPP ships, but they didn't really have any other options. Reprogramming the simulators to display Spung rather than UPP ships would be waste of time they didn't have. He jerked the ship abruptly to one side, avoiding a blast from a heavy cruiser…and turned directly into a swarm of single-seat fighters. And, once again, their ship registered as destroyed. "I never realized how dangerous those things are," he muttered.

"The major disadvantage with them is they don't have much range—you have to have the carriers to go with them—but they're fast, abominably hard to target, and enough blasts can take out almost anything," Goddard agreed. "It would be better if Radu was running these drills with us, since he'll be the one tracing the path of battle and plotting our course out, but…"

Harlan thought back on the strained look in Radu's eyes when he'd gone into the galley to invite the navigator to join them. "I don't think that's a good idea right now. He's working with Jacie."

"I know." Goddard shook his head. "When we start acting as escort, we won't be able to keep up transmissions between the two ships without the Spung getting suspicious. We'll run a few simulations with the three of us then. Let's do one more now, and then you need to get some food and some rest."

"I'm fine, Commander, really. I'll just grab a snack and we can keep drilling."

"You need sleep, Mr. Band, and I'll be giving Mr. Radu the same order shortly if he doesn't do it on his own. Restart the simulation once more."

They made it farther the next time, but eventually the ship was destroyed, and Harlan sat back with a sigh. The few times they'd been in combat in the Christa the focus had been on running away…that they would have to fight a real battle was making him more nervous than he thought it would. Not much like the vid games he'd always enjoyed. "Are you going to get some sleep too?"

"I will shortly, after I go over the weapons capabilities again. Find Radu and get yourselves something to eat, then find a bunk. Aslinn—Jacie—will alert us when it's time to undock with the Rockhopper."

Radu was where Harlan had last seen him, in the galley hissing at Jacie's image on one of the consoles. "Hey, how's it going?" He blinked as the young Andromedan turned and snarled. "Uh, you want to run that by me again? Maybe in Standard?"

"Ignore him, it's going fine," Jacie told him with a glare at Radu. "We've run over what engine troubles you could have, why you're on escort duty—Aslinn found some security codes we can try although I'd save those as a last resort—where you're going, who you report to…everything either of us could come up with that they might ask about. I take it your commander wants you two to get some sleep now?"

"Yeah, food and then rest."

"I can't rest now! I need to practice…I have to make sure I can cover up my accent, and—"

"Sorry, buddy, he said he'd make it an order. There'll be time for you to practice after we nap."

"But then we'll separate…I won't be able to talk to Jacie again. What if I forget something, or mess up?"

"Then we deal with it when it happens," Jacie answered with a shrug. "Remember, we don't want this to sound too rehearsed. Keep the sentences simple and don't try and give any details or explanations unless they ask. And if you don't know what a question is, or you don't know how to answer, tell them they don't have clearance. How did the simulations go?"

"We died," Harlan answered bluntly. "We were up against UPP ships though, not Spung, and hopefully there won't be multiple heavy cruisers around the station. Or carriers."

"If they've got carriers, we're all dead anyway. As it is, I'm counting on a fairly small complement of station-bound fighters. Those things are fast and nasty, and the Rockhopper only has forward guns—not much use when you're trying to run away." He grinned slightly. "Well, pleasant dreams." Jacie cut the connection.

"At least he seems better," Harlan said with a glance at Radu. "At least the warped sense of humor is back. He was pretty shook up before, after the fight."

"Yeah…I tried to ask him, but he definitely didn't want to talk about it."

"Guess I can understand that." He opened up one of the bags they'd brought from the Rockhopper and pulled out two ration packs. "I know these things are made to be edible by almost any race but I wonder if they actually taste good to any of them. Sure don't to humans."

Radu shrugged. "Doubt it. Taste awful to me too. Worse than that sand-wich you made me try."

"Hey, at least I don't eat intestines." Radu barely cracked a smile at his teasing tone; most of his attention was focused on the blank countertop. "Hey, are you going to be all right?"

"Y-yeah, I think so. I'm just worried. There's just so much to remember…if I mess up, they could trap us all on the station. And if they figure out we aren't who we say we are…Aslinn and Jacie won't even have a chance."

"It'll be all right. Just tell them who we're supposed to be and claim everything else is classified." Harlan finished off his meal and stood. "I claim one of the top bunks." Radu followed him into the bunkroom, most of his meal still untouched.

"Harlan?"

"What?"

"Do you think Suzee is okay?"

"What do you mean? Are you afraid they killed her?"

"N-no, but I was talking to Jacie and trying to get him to tell me more about this station we're going to, but…he wouldn't tell me anything else. He just kept saying it was bad."

"You heard what they said, though—they just do extractions. Probably all he knows are rumors, and he just doesn't want us to worry more. Besides, you know Suzee. She's probably driving them all crazy telling them what a genius she is. Or making them assault themselves with more dinnerware."

"Maybe. It's just…"

He went silent, and Harlan stared up at the other bunk. "What?"

"I had a friend, once, back at home. Jesh. He was older…he was alive during the war. In one of the slave mines. Most…most of the children from the hatching before mine…when they were taken, they never made it back. He did, somehow. The only one in his group. Some nights he couldn't sleep…he was about the only person I really liked so I didn't mind sitting up with him. A lot of times he didn't make very much sense, but other times he'd talk about what the guards had done, what other ones would come in and do…. H-he had a lot of scars."

"What happened to him?" Harlan asked quietly. He'd never really thought about what had happened to Andromedan children during the war…until he started making friends with Radu, he'd never thought of them at all. But the idea that the Spung had used them, used and apparently tortured at least some of them…not to mention kidnapping babies, or eggs, or whatever. He was starting to understand why Radu hated the Spung so badly.

"He died," Radu answered after a moment. "Not quite a cycle after I hatched. The dust in the mines did something to his lungs. He wasn't the only one to die like that, he just lasted longer than most of them."

"They've only had her for a day, two at the most. She'll be all right." He put as much conviction into his words as he could. "I'm sorry about your friend." Radu didn't respond, and a few moments later he rolled over and looked down to find Radu's eyes closed. Whether he was asleep or faking, Harlan wasn't sure, but if he had managed to drop off Harlan wasn't going to say anything to wake him back up. He flipped back onto his back and stared at the ceiling, trying not to think about dying children.

"Time to get up, gentlemen," a voice called what seemed only moments later, bringing Harlan back to consciousness.

"Hm? Commander?" He sat up, banging his forehead on the ceiling panel. "Ouch."

"It's time to separate from the Rockhopper."

Everything came back in a rush, and he jumped down from the bunk to stand beside Radu. "Man, I must have been more tired than I thought. Did you get any sleep, Commander?"

"Some," he agreed. "Command post, gentlemen."

"Commander, do you think maybe Jacie should join us over here?" Harlan suggested. "I mean, I know he can't get caught by the Spung, but at this point none of us can. And if we meet another Ashrach on the station…. He seems better now, not as shook up as he was before."

"I understand your concern, Mr. Band, but I'm not sure he'd be able to handle another fight like that. At least not yet."

"He seemed okay earlier," Radu objected. "After he got some sleep."

"I don't claim to be an expert in Andromedan biology, but the symptoms he was showing earlier—slurred words, difficulty focusing—are pretty clear signs of shock in humans. Well, shock or blood loss, and since he wasn't cut…. As useful as his fighting abilities might be, if that happened again on the station, either due to another fight or even a relapse, he'd be a serious liability. Besides which, I don't think he'd willingly leave Aslinn."

"Oh, yeah. I didn't think of that. And when we run, they'll need one person to fly and the other working the weapons. Radu, how long do you think we'll have to get Suzee out once we're on the station?"

"Jacie said Aslinn said we should claim we have a burnout in the Zarhas connectors…I'm not really sure what they are, but he said that if the main shunt gets clogged or accidentally disconnected—like in battle—it can set off a chain reaction that would destroy a ship if it tries to go into hyperspace. They take about two hours station-bound to replace, and another to run tests."

"So three hours." Goddard nodded. "You remember the layouts of the quarantine stations?"

Both Harlan and Radu nodded. "We're going to take over one of the monitoring rooms?" Harlan asked.

"I think it's the safest way. Searching cells at random, especially in corridors that are bound to be patrolled, will take way too long and will probably get us all killed. If we can make it into a monitoring room and get the cameras disabled we'll have a relatively safe base of operations. We just have to make sure we aren't seen on the way there. Then, if we're lucky, we can get Suzee out and after three hours claim our repairs are done here and leave the station normally without them being the wiser."

"I think they'll notice Suzee disappearing," Radu disagreed.

"If we get to a monitoring station, we'll be able to time our rescue as close to the three-hour mark as possible. Half the battle will be getting out of the bay before they lock down the station."

An alarm rang through the hull, and Goddard glanced up. "We're moving into communication range, gentlemen, let's get to command."

The expected challenge came from the Spung station soon after they took their stations, and although Harlan didn't understand what was being said, anyone could read the relief in Radu's face as he cut the transmission. "They bought it?"

"Yeah." He looked a little surprised. "I…they didn't even seem interested; they just gave us a berth."

"Well, engine troubles aren't exactly newsworthy, and since we aren't asking them to actually do anything for us it's probably easier for them to just cooperate." Goddard shook his head. "Mr. Band, bring up the first simulation again. Mr. Radu, we're running battle simulations using the specs for a Spung scout ship. Unfortunately, the sims have us facing UPP fighters, but at least it will give us a feel for the ships in battle."

The time inbound to the station passed fairly quickly, and almost before Harlan realized it they were docking. The simulations had gone a little better this time around—they'd died all three times but lasted much longer than in the previous simulations, and the last time they'd nearly escaped. If there hadn't been a heavy cruiser in just the right position, they'd have made it. Fortunately there didn't seem to be any heavy cruisers currently orbiting the station…half a dozen light and several transport vessels, but nothing with major weaponry. He landed the ship in the appropriate bay neatly, and then turned back to the other two. "When are we going in, Commander?"

"We'll wait here for a bit longer, just in case someone tries to contact Captain Radu, and then we'll move out as soon as one of the doors is clear. We can't be seen exiting the ship. Remember, keep the cloaks up over your heads, and keep your hands covered."

Harlan donned one of the cloaks they'd found in the storage locker, pulling the hood up. Radu and Commander Goddard had matching ones, and they had a fourth for Suzee. Jacie assured them that it wasn't unusual for non-military Spung to go cloaked and as long as they didn't do anything obviously out of place they probably wouldn't be questioned. Hopefully. The only other option was to attempt to crawl through air vents, and since the largest of those were less than a quarter of a meter wide that wasn't really viable. The only weapons they would be able to take with them were the handheld blasters they'd used earlier, but if everything worked out they wouldn't need them. And if it didn't work out…well, nothing short of a shuttle cannon would help them then.

Sneaking out onto the station was almost anticlimactic…the bay cleared at shift change, and they were able to slip out and seal the door behind them. They couldn't talk without alerting anyone, and using hand signs was limited to when they were out of sight of others—it would be hard for a passerby to mistake skin for scales—but they had the plan worked out. Monitoring stations had been located on decks one through three of all the stations they'd had the plans of—those were the decks that had prison cells. They were on deck seven now...the next two down should be living quarters and the one after that public facilities. That was where things would get tricky.


	14. Out of Hell

**What May Come**

_Please see chapter 1 for author's notes._

Chapter 14: Out of Hell

Radu followed Harlan down the corridor, keeping his head down and trying not to remember that he was in the center of a Spung station. They weren't the only ones in cloaks, at least…apparently the military ran this station with a pretty heavy hand and no one really wanted to be noticed. He hoped Suzee was all right…who knew what they had done to her in this place. He knew, better than Harlan or even Commander Goddard, what they were capable of doing.

"Do you see anything?" Goddard asked in a low voice as they passed by a checkpoint to level three. Two very military-looking Spung with very large weapons blocked the way, and so far no one had attempted to pass.

"Not yet," Harlan muttered back.

"Me either," Radu agreed. "And I think they've got an open comm so rushing them is probably a bad—" he broke off with a snarl as a cluster of Spung teenagers coming from the concourse passed close beside them. The entrances to the lower levels seemed to be spaced at even intervals, but this was the fourth they'd passed and all the others had be equally well guarded. A couple more snarls as the group moved off hopefully kept them from getting curious.

"You've got to teach me some of that. I could pretend to be insulting someone and really talk about the weather or something."

"Not now, Mr. Band. We need to find a way through one of those checkpoints. If we can't find a way to sneak through, we're going to have to risk taking out the most out-of-the-way one we can find and then get into a monitoring station as quickly as possible."

"Commander, they'll notice if two of their guards suddenly disappear." Radu protested.

"I realize that, but we have to get in there."

Suzee leaned against the bunk, unable to gather enough energy to even pull herself onto the hard surface. She'd been on this station…it was hard to say how long now. One day? Two? A week? Logically, it couldn't have been that long…but it sure felt like it. It was so hard to judge time in the little windowless cell. She didn't even know what they were trying to get out of her anymore—when she'd first gotten here, they'd told her they were giving her injections to lower her mental barriers, make her vulnerable to suggestion, that sort of thing. The only thing she'd been vulnerable to at that point was boredom. Really, if her body was capable of sustaining itself in almost any environment—including those with concentrations of poisons that would kill almost anyone else—did they really think injecting a few random cocktails into her bloodstream was going to do anything? Unfortunately, when that didn't get results—and it didn't take them long to discover that fact—they began to resort to more direct methods. She'd decided about the time that a kick cracked three of her ribs that perhaps she should have _faked_ a reaction to the drugs. This was the second time that they'd taken her out of her cell since then, and she wasn't even sure what they were planning to do with her any more. The first session had been quizzing her about the Christa's systems. Claiming she knew nothing hadn't gone over well—she was pretty certain the knot on the back of her head had come with a concussion. After that she'd lied outright when she could and underestimated everything otherwise. And hoped they weren't in direct communication so they wouldn't figure it out immediately. This last time they'd wanted her to use her telepathy on another prisoner—a Spung woman, but in worse shape than she was. She'd turned on one of the guards instead. If it had just been the two in the room they'd have made it out, but someone had been observing from the hallway…she'd woken up on the floor of her cell.

"Ouch." A deep breath and she forced herself onto the bunk. At least it was a little cleaner than the ground. There was nothing in the cell she could use her engineering abilities on…the lack of windows made it impossible to meet anyone's eyes…. "This is really bad." A scratching sound as the door began to open made her force herself slightly more upright. "Really, really bad."

"Suzee?"

"Commander?" Relief made her raise her voice, and a hand waved her to silence. "Sorry. What are you doing here?"

"Rescuing you."

That was Radu, and she breathed a sign of relief. "Is Harlan with you?"

Goddard nodded. "He's fine, but there's no time to talk now. Can you walk?"

"As long as we don't need to run."

Radu passed over a cloak similar to the one he and Goddard were wearing. "Someone's coming. The next corridor over."

"All right, let's get out of here."

She followed Radu down the corridor with Commander Goddard bringing up the rear. A moment later, they ducked into another room. "What are we doing?"

"Planning our escape. Oh, man, you look awful."

"Gee, thanks, Harlan. How did you guys find me? How did you get here? Did Rosie and Bova and Miss Davenport escape?"

"Not exactly…we made a few friends back on the Triiad station. They're helping us out."

"We need to get back to the ship," Goddard interrupted before Harlan could say any more. "Radu, stay close to Suzee in case we need to run. We're not going to bother getting back to the same post…the odds of getting another distraction aren't good. We'll head for the one by the access corridor aft of the promenade—the one we passed that was almost deserted. Mr. Band, you and I will take down the guards."

"Won't that alert someone?" Radu asked.

"They're facing outward. If we hit them from behind and knock them unconscious before they have time to sound an alarm we should have time to get back to the ship and launch before anyone notices they're not responding."

"And hopefully before they notice Suzee is missing," Harlan agreed. "We're almost at the three hour mark, so Radu can request a launch slot as soon as we get back."

Suzee wanted very much to ask what they planned on launching if they hadn't rescued the Christa yet, and why Radu would be requesting anything of the Spung anyway, but she stayed quiet. Plenty of time for questions later. Hopefully. Then they were moving again, and more quickly than before. Her ribs were protesting with each step, and she concentrated on remaining on Harlan's heels. Radu was behind her and could carry her if she fell—it might be easier on her if she just let him—but pride made her want to walk out of this place on her own two feet. And then they were at the guard post. Blasts from two weapons she hadn't even seen Commander Goddard and Harlan draw dropped the two soldiers where they stood, and they continued moving.

"Keep you hands covered," Radu whispered behind her. "And don't talk."

"Wh—" Suddenly they were in a hall full of Spung, with shops and restaurants, and other public facilities advertised around them. No wonder no one had heard the shots—she could barely hear herself think over the din. They weren't the only figures in cloaks, but all the others had green hands protruding from the sleeves. The path they were following was sloping slightly upwards…they were heading for an outer level of the station. So some form of ship was waiting for them. Hopefully it wasn't far. She concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other.

Suzee faltered again, and Radu wondered if he shouldn't just pick her up. It wouldn't be a struggle, but…she would say something if she needed help, right? And it might be difficult to explain why he was carrying her if someone stopped to question them. They'd finally gotten out of the main concourse and onto the decks holding living quarters, but there were still plenty of Spung around. Goddard had them moving at a pace that wasn't quite running, but it wasn't far off either. Just barely slow enough to keep from attracting attention. Even so, it seemed to take an abnormally long time to get back into the bay.

"Ah, man, that is not what we need," Harlan muttered. A group of Spung workers, apparently on break, were lounging on the machinery in the empty bay next to the little scout ship. "Now how are we supposed to sneak onboard?"

"That's our ship?" Suzee demanded. "How did we get a Spung ship?"

"Long story."

Goddard sighed. "No hope for it now, let's just walk on calmly and hope they don't say anything. Radu, the second we're onboard, I want you requesting a launch. The first available time, and keep at them until they agree to something in the next fifteen minutes, understood?"

"Yes, Commander." The two minute walk across the floor of the bay and into the ship, deliberately slow and unworried, was almost as stressful as their dash across the station had been. Then they'd just been four in a crowd…here they were four people out in full view, climbing onto a ship whose entire crew was supposed to be working on repairs. When the hatch slammed shut behind them, he sighed in relief.

"We're not there yet, people. Suzee, take a seat. Radu…"

"I'm on it, Commander." The snarled message didn't take but a moment to send…getting them to given him a time within the next twenty minutes was harder. The commander had said fifteen, but he didn't want to force the issue and make them suspicious. Harlan was already at the helm, waiting for orders, and the commander was in the galley getting something…oh, a medkit for Suzee. They'd left her sitting at the comm station…he'd worked over her shoulder to get the launch time.

"Mr. Radu, when are we launching?" Goddard asked as he came back with the kit and took the weapons station.

"Um…less than fourteen minutes left."

"All right. Mr. Band, bring up the engines. Suzee, can you get ready to open a channel? The coordinates are already programmed in."

She frowned at the console for a moment, and a hint of the arrogance they were accustomed to returned. "Of course, Commander, it's not that difficult."

Harlan glanced back at Radu. "Told you so."

Radu got the message—she might be a little bruised, but Suzee was going to be fine. "I heard that."

"Heard what?" Suzee asked.

"Nothing," Harlan assured her, and Radu nodded. Harlan's words had been too low for the Yensidian girl to hear, and would require too much of an explanation anyway. He wasn't sure what had possessed him to tell Harlan about Jesh—normally he didn't say anything about the Arks or other Andromedans around the human teenager. It never led to anything good. But for once he hadn't gotten yelled at or harassed…Harlan actually seemed upset at what had been done.

Time until launch seemed to drag, and all four of them kept glancing at the comm panel expecting it to light up with demands from the control center. Finally the chronometer chimed, and force fields sprang up, shielding the rest of the bay as the hatch behind the ship opened to space. "Take us out, Mr. Band."

They'd just cleared the bay when the panel in front of Suzee did light up, and snarls came through. "Radu?" Harlan asked.

"They noticed Suzee was missing…all ships are ordered to hold position for a search."

"Harlan, try and get us close to the ship guarding the Rockhopper. I'll target its weapons' systems. As soon as I do, Suzee, open the channel and tell Aslinn and Jacie to run for it. We'll be right behind them. Radu, plot us the fastest way out of station weapon range."

There wasn't a lot of open space directly around the station, Radu noted absently…there were more ships waiting for a berth than there had been earlier. But most of them were powered down…he punched in several sets of coordinates. "Ready, Commander."

"Now!" Goddard barked, and the ship lurched. Aslinn and Jacie's images appeared on the main screen, and no one had to say anything since their ship was already in motion. Enough of the ships surrounding the station were caught by surprise that the station's weapons couldn't be brought immediately to bear—not without incinerating several of their own craft, anyway.

"Fighter jets, incoming!" Jacie called. "See you in the asteroid belt, assuming we all live that long."

The Rockhopper suddenly twisted, dropping between two light cruisers, and Harlan didn't wait for Radu's signal to send the little scout shooting through the space it had vacated. "Are they coming after us?"

Radu was trying to sort out the ships that were safe to pass closely—the ones that were still powered down despite the confusion, apparently with all their crew on station—and the ones that were readying weapons and powering engines to come in pursuit. "Who? The Spung? Of course they're after us!"

"No, the jets!"

"No…three—four—light cruisers and a couple transports and…Harlan, get us out of here!"

"I'm try—hell!" Harlan swung the ship hard, instinctively trying to put as much distance between their little ship and the monstrous capitol ship that had come out of nowhere. It wasn't—quite—a killcruiser, but it had more than enough firepower to turn them into spacedust with one salvo. "Radu!"

"Working on it! There!"

"That's the wrong direction," Harlan protested. "We're trying to get away from the station!"

"I know that, but right now we're about to fly down its throat! We're not going all the way back, just far enough that it can't open fire without endangering the Spung ships. Then we flip and push the ship as fast as it can go…try and get around it before they realize how fast our acceleration is." The pilot was silent for a second. "Do you have a better idea? We're almost within their range!"

Harlan jerked the ship around. "Here goes nothing."


	15. Escape

**What May Come**

_Please see chapter 1 for author's notes._

Chapter 15: Escape

Goddard didn't bother directing any fire at the big capitol ship…nothing he had could do more than scratch the paint. Instead, everything they had he directed at the smaller ships they were currently on a collision course with, hoping to force at least a few of them to slow. From what he could tell, Radu had given them the best trajectory possible—unfortunately with a capitol ship in pursuit and half a dozen light cruisers and armed transports oncoming, "best possible" was an entirely relative term. Harlan jerked the ship abruptly to one side and a missile passed form behind so closely that its wash caused the little ship to shake.

"Now, Harlan!"

The teenager brought the engines to full power at Radu's cry, forcing the ship to turn sharply away from the approaching ships. The hull creaked alarmingly, but the ship held together and several of the light cruisers had to break pursuit to avoid collisions as their fellows cut in front of them. "How far is the asteroid belt?"

"At this speed, one minute, 13 seconds."

The commander spared a glance for the secondary screen where the transmission from Aslinn and Jacie's ship had been routed, but aside from the fact that the little ship was jerking erratically—within the shock harnesses both were being shook pretty fiercely—he couldn't tell anything about their situation and didn't have time to ask. The approaching ships had been split into two pursuing groups, three—all light cruisers—that had managed to follow them in their frantic turn, and a second, larger group that had been forced to slow and reset their course. The capitol ship had been forced to decelerate the hardest and was now at the end of the second group, but they'd be within their weapons' range long before the others. The little scout was still pulling away, but as soon as the other ships got their engines up to full power they'd start to close the gap. "Can we get any more power out of the engines?"

"I've got everything at max now," Harlan called back.

"Radu, any way to shorten the time?"

"Sorry, Commander."

He'd expected that response, but over a minute was a long time to avoid pursuers—and their weapons—in a space battle. "Suzee, can you call up the engine schematics and see if you can get us anything more?"

She frowned at the console in front of her, and then got up and moved carefully to the one on the opposite side of the helm. "Where is the translation program?"

"Red button, select the third option that comes onto the screen." Radu didn't look up from his console as he answered; still focused on the course they followed.

Goddard brought the laser cannons online as the capitol ship's first salvo of missiles reached them. They were just barely within range and weren't difficult to pick off as they approached, but as the ship closed it would be increasingly difficult to dodge. And if they were willing to fire from this extreme range…he didn't know offhand how many missiles a Spung capitol ship carried, but they obviously weren't worried about running out. "Time?"

"Forty-seven seconds. The asteroid belt is clear on sensors, I'm working on a course."

He could do the basics, Goddard knew, but the thing about asteroid belts was that they were unpredictable. Hence the reason they made good hiding places. Harlan would have to slow the ship and do the majority of the navigation on-site. The second salvo of incoming missiles were dealt with almost as easily as the first, but the third got much closer—a normal ship would have point defense lasers as well as the three dual-use cannons he was using, but this was only a scout and didn't have as much defensive armament as he'd like. And the three light cruisers who'd been able to match their turn had almost reached missile range.

"Harlan, there should be a green knob on your left," Suzee called. "According to the specs it controls some sort of experimental thruster system for traceless running."

"Might come in handy later, but they already have us—whoa!—in sight," Harlan shot back, twisting the ship to one side as a missile got closer than intended before Goddard blew it up.

"Yes, but if you fire it up now, it will give us that much more power."

"Do it, Harlan!" Goddard commanded as a second missile, this one from one of the light cruisers, nearly made it past his defenses. If any more got close they'd have to start with the more drastic evasive maneuvers they'd worked on, and while that would make it much more difficult for the Spung to track them, to get that level of maneuverability they'd have to lose some speed.

"Fifteen seconds."

He could hear Suzee tapping rapidly on the console, but couldn't spare the time to see what she was working on. It looked like several of the transports had fallen back, unable to keep up with the faster battle ships, but there was still the second group of light cruisers closing, on top of the capitol ship and the three already firing. A blast shook the tiny ship. "Evasive maneuvers delta-x-nine!"

Almost as soon as the words were out of his mouth Harlan brought the ship into a tight dive, and the next set of missiles passed above them in the space they'd just occupied. The ship shot back "up", and Goddard launched several missiles at the approaching ships, almost managing to score a hit on one of the cruisers who obviously hadn't expected any offensive maneuvers Unfortunately, the scout only carried fifteen missiles total—five for each launcher—nowhere near enough to saturate the defenses of even one of the ships.

"Asteroid belt in visual range!" Radu called. "Five seconds!"

Harlan continued with the sharp swerves, intended to throw off pursuit. He had to drop speed to do it, but they'd made it far enough that it shouldn't matter—as soon as they were in the asteroid belt they'd have to slow down considerably anyway. It wouldn't do for them to make it to relative safety only to smash the ship to pieces on of the asteroids. "Suzee, cut the transmission to the Rockhopper," Goddard ordered, not taking his eyes off his readouts. "Harlan, aim for the densest part of the belt. There is a lot of metal in this debris…if we can get deep enough to remove ourselves from their visuals, we can kill the engines and wait until they've moved on."

"What if they don't move on?" Radu asked.

"I'll try and blow up something vaguely our size just before we get out of visual range…hopefully their sensors will be malfunctioning badly enough they won't recognize it's not—" He broke off suddenly as the ship shuddered. "Damn, I was afraid of that."

"What?" Suzee asked, holding her taped ribs as she picked herself up the floor where she'd fallen as she'd tried to get up from the engineering console and move to communications. This time she made it, and the scene from the Rockhopper's command post disappeared.

"It's harder for them to target us in here because of all the asteroids," Goddard explained. "But they don't have to actually hit us…hitting the asteroids and pelting us with the shards will do plenty of damage, and it's a lot harder for me to shoot down rocks."

"They're falling back," Harlan reported. "They can't maneuver as well as we can. I think I can get us out of visual range pretty soon."

All it took was a glance at his screen for Goddard to confirm that he had plenty of scout-size asteroids to choose from when it came to simulating their demise. "Give the word, Mr. Band."

"There, Harlan," Radu said, gesturing at the screen. "It looks like that's the core of one of the planets…or it was the core, anyway. Very high concentrations of heavy metals…their scanners will be blind."

"Okay," Harlan agreed, altering course slightly. "Commander?"

"As soon as we clear the edge of the cloud, dive, and I'll target an asteroid that's vaguely our size. Hopefully their sensors will just pick up the explosion and they'll draw their own conclusions. Suzee, get ready to shut the engines down entirely."

"I…all right." She stood again, unsteady on the shuddering ship, and slowly made her way back to the engineering console. "We aren't going to need to reopen communications anytime soon, right?"

"Not in there," Goddard agreed. "Radu?"

"They've fallen back pretty far," he confirmed. "Only a few seconds until we pass the edge of the cloud."

"Three…two…now, Commander!" Harlan called. The ship dove through the cloud and into the remnants of the planets core, scraping neatly between two of the larger pieces that appeared on their viewscreen.

"Find up one like that farther in and land on it," Goddard ordered. "Suzee, as soon as we touch down, kill the engines."

"There," Radu said, moving behind Harlan's shoulder to point. "Or…maybe there. Or…"

"Pick one!"

"Th-that one, definitely that one. Maybe inside that crater on the surface?"

"Right…"

"Just get us down in one piece, Mr. Band." With the heavy metals interfering with their sensors, he was flying almost exclusively by what he could see through the viewscreen, and even then the miniature particles were reflecting light and causing distortions. Goddard had managed to target one of the mid-sized asteroids with one of his remaining missiles as they dove…he'd confirmed that the thing detonated, although whether the Spung ships would be able to tell more from the energy readings than he could he wasn't sure. Hopefully not, hopefully they'd just notice that something large blew up. If they got the bright idea to send a few salvos into the cloud just on general principle though…getting hit with a random shot wouldn't make them any less dead than getting hit with a targeted one. The ship skidded slightly but Harlan kept it on the asteroid, even managing the crater Radu had indicated. Not exactly in the center, but on one of the lips at least. "Engines off, now. Power down everything except life support."

Suzee began tapping at the console in front of her. "The engines are definitely off…I think I got everything else too."

"All right, nice job, people," Goddard complimented. "Now we just need to sit tight."

"For how long, Commander?" Harlan asked. "I mean, the Spung could just park a ship out there and leave them there for weeks. We can't wait that long!"

"I know, Mr. Band. We'll wait an hour, and then fly out the other side of this cloud and try and make contact with Jacie and Aslinn. Mr. Radu, and idea how far this extends?"

"I'm not sure, Commander…I couldn't get any readings past it. The planet couldn't have been that large, though…maybe an hours' flight, at most to get clear of the heavy metals? Unless the second planet's core lines up directly with this one's…"

"Why do you keep talking about planets?" Suzee asked.

"This used to be a binary system," Harlan replied. "The Spung blew them up."

"The planets? They can do that?"

"Apparently so." Goddard sighed. "Definitely not the best news we've gotten lately. Did you—when did they take you off the Christa?"

"A couple days ago, I guess," she answered with a shrug. "About six hours after a Killcruiser—an old one that seriously needed repairs, but still a Killcruiser—locked a tractor beam on us and hauled us away from the station. We tried to call for help, but they said the Spung had proof of ownership. The Spung don't own the Christa!"

"The Triiad apparently let the Spung do as they please," Goddard responded. "It took us several hours just to find out what had happened."

"Yeah, and then a couple guys attacked me and Radu and said they were going to sell us to the Spung," Harlan put in.

"What happened when you were taken from the Christa?"

"Well…at first we were just being towed. We tried to break away, but the beam was too strong and we didn't want to damage the hull. That's why we couldn't hyperjump either…it would have torn the Christa to pieces. And then we stopped moving, and a bunch of Spung boarded. Not Warlord Shank though, or any others we've seen. We sealed ourselves in command, but…" she shrugged. "There were a lot of them. Miss Davenport got hit first. We heard them trying to come through the hatch and were watching it, but a second boarding party came through the airlock and we didn't notice them until they hit her. Thelma got them all, and Bova was doing great job knocking them out as they came through on the hatch, but eventually he ran out of energy. One of them zapped Rosie when he went down, and I guess they got me too. I was backing up Thelma at the other hatch. I'm not sure what happened to her—Thelma—after that; when we woke up we—Bova, Rosie, Miss Davenport, and I—were chained up in the galley. I took over the guard and made him release us, but our timing was off and a second guard came in to relieve the other one just as I was trying to free Bova's antennae. Rosie hit him with a heat blast, but not before he called for backup. They had us pinned down pretty quickly. That's when the first guard told them what had happened, and the next thing I know I'm waking up in a Spung transport ship. Cat said they'd sent a special courier just to take me off the Christa. I tried a couple times to get away…almost managed to take over their command once…but they chained my hands and taped my eyes shut after the second time. They didn't take it off until I was back in the cell you found me in."

"Are you okay?" Radu asked.

"A little banged up, but mostly yeah. I…have you heard anything about the others?"

"No, we didn't even know about you until a friend of Aslinn's called with a rumor about an unknown type of telepath they'd captured."

"Who are they, anyway?" she asked curiously. "I mean, I saw them earlier, and they don't look any older than us…what are they doing out here?"

"The Andromedan is Jacie," Radu started. "He calls himself an Ashrach—he was a slave to the Spung when he hatched and managed to escape. Now he's part of a resistance group called the In'Tssai."

"Aslinn's his partner," Harlan continued. "His dad was a trader…they ended up out here after the war. The two of them help relay people out of Spung space who've been captured."

"How'd you meet them?"

"A man on the Triiad station gave us their names," Goddard replied, leaving out the part about getting locked in a holding cell. It wasn't something he wanted spread around, and he noticed neither of the other two looked like they were going to comment on its omission. "They offered to help when they heard what had happened."

"And they had a Spung scout ship lying around?"

Harlan made a face. "No, they have the Rockhopper. It's supposed to be a salvage ship, but it's kind of in bad shape. We stole this ship."

"What?"

"Well…"


	16. The Waiting Game

**What May Come**

_Please see chapter 1 for author's notes._

_Italics denote speech from an alternate dimension.._

Chapter 16: The Waiting Game

_You know you ought to get those ribs looked at._

"Shut up," Suzee muttered under her breath at her best friend. Radu gave her an odd look out of the corner of his eye, but she just shook her head.

_Suit yourself, but as soon as the adrenaline finishes wearing off, you're going to be in a lot of pain,_ Catalina informed her.

Suzee glared at her for a moment and then leaned back as best she could in the seat that had once belonged to the Spung engineer, trying to take some of the pressure off her ribs. She was pretty sure one of the cracked ones had finally broken in the little tumble she'd taken moving between the engineering and communications consoles and knew full well that she should be lying down, but she also knew that the second she was fully reclined she'd be asleep. The last thing she wanted was the others having to fly into a fight without an engineer around. The hour Goddard given them on the asteroid had almost passed—the story of meeting up with Aslinn and Jacie had taken a good portion of the time. None of the other four had moved from their positions as they waited, even in telling the story…Radu was alternately glancing between his console and the viewscreen, Catalina was focused mostly on Suzee although she took a couple glances out the window also, Commander Goddard was staring at his weapons systems, and Harlan was focused entirely on the screen in front of him. Not that the view had changed much…lots of dust, and not much else. They could barely see the outer edge of the crater in front of them.

"Alright, people, that's time," Goddard announced. "Suzee, bring the engines back online. Harlan, we need to move as slowly as possible. I think I've figured out how to boost the passive scanners to maximum, and if we detect any Spung ships I want to be back down to minimal systems immediately."

"We can try the traceless engines," Suzee offered. "They were designed to avoid detection." And she wanted a closer look at the schematics…it wasn't a design she'd seen before. Routing the power from the engines through some sort of dissipation screen…it might be worth implementing on the Christa. It would make them much harder to trace in situations where direct scans weren't viable.

"The Spung built them," Radu pointed out. "They probably know how to track them."

"Maybe, but they're smaller than the other engines…easier to make us look like drifting debris rather than propelled debris."

"All right, we'll try them. We'll maintain communications silence until we clear the cloud and can use our scanners to the fullest to confirm that the Spung aren't within range. Then we'll try and contact the Rockhopper."

"Do you think they made it?" Harlan asked.

"I think they've probably got a few tricks they didn't mention to us. After all, they're going in and out of Spung space regularly."

_That's not an answer,_ Catalina pointed out.

Suzee agreed but didn't repeat the comment so the others could hear…it was obviously all he was going to give. "Ready, Commander."

"Let's do this, people. Mr. Radu, take communications. We're going to be navigating by sight for a bit, anyway."

"Yes, sir."

It was almost more nerve-wracking to be moving, Suzee thought as the ship slowly lifted off…almost worse that sitting on that rock and hoping no one noticed them. And they were moving so slowly…. It took slightly longer than Radu had estimated to get out of the debris field from the core of the planet, and even longer than that to get far enough out that they could use the sensors and put some faith in their reliability. She managed to distract herself somewhat with engine schematics—it really was an advanced design—but her ribs were hurting badly and her head didn't feel so great either. She hated to admit when Catalina was right. "See anything, Commander?"

"Nothing yet. Radu, open a communications channel. Short range only…I don't want to risk more until we're completely clear of the belt."

He tapped the console in front of him. "Nothing, Commander."

"Well, that's not really a surprise. It's a large asteroid belt and there's no guarantee they've even left it yet. We'll continue at our current pace, and when we're completely clear we'll boost communications and turn toward the rendezvous point."

"Shouldn't we stay in the belt until we reach the rendezvous, or as closely as possible?" Harlan asked.

"We might end up going back in, but I want a look at the area first. And if we stay in here, we definitely won't find the Rockhopper until we reach the deckship."

"Deckship?" Suzee asked curiously.

"It's going to take us into Spung space, hopefully somewhere near the Christa. Do you remember hearing anything when they were on board about where they were taking her? Seeing anything when you were in their minds?"

"I don't think so…they were speaking Spung except when they were ordering us around or threatening us so I don't really know. And none of the ones whose minds I was in knew anything…most of them didn't even know who we were. They were just guards."

"Damn. Maybe Jacie heard from the rest of his friends," Harlan offered.

"I hope so, Mr. Band." He glanced down at his sensors. "I'm boosting the scanners to full power. Mr. Radu, take navigation; Suzee switch back to communications."

The two of them had just gotten up to move when a small asteroid struck the ship. It didn't cause much more than a shudder—Radu probably didn't even notice—but Suzee felt herself start to fall and clipped the side of her ribcage on the console.

_Suzee!_

"Hey, I think she's waking up." Something sharp jabbed her in the side, and she made an effort to roll away from the pain.

"Radu, hold her. Stay still, Suzee, I think I found some local anesthetic."

That was Commander Goddard, and she did her best to obey…although she seriously wanted to get away from whatever was causing that pain. A few moments later a comforting numbness set in and she managed to open her eyes. "What happened?"

"You should have told us that you re-injured your ribs," Goddard scolded lightly. "You collapsed on the command post."

_You scared the heck out of me! What were you thinking? If you just told them you were hurting so much, they wouldn't have asked you to move around!_

"I was doing fine!" Suzee protested. "I would have told you once we got to safety. Where am I, anyway?" The room was tiny…she was lying on some kind of bunk staring up at the bottom of another, but there didn't seem to be much else there.

"This is the bunkroom on the scout…we brought you here so you could lay down for awhile."

She blinked, tilting her head back slightly, and found herself looking up at an Radu. Who currently had both her shoulders pinned to the bunk…no wonder she hadn't been able to get away from the commander. "Oh."

"It looks like two of your ribs are now broken," Goddard reported. "And you're lucky you didn't hit your head when you fell…the last thing you need is to aggravate that concussion. We don't have much here that I can treat you with—Aslinn sent us a couple first aid kits but no bone-setters or anything like that—so until we get back to the Rockhopper you're going to have to stay here."

"Commander, I'll be fine, honest. I can't feel anything now…if you just tape them tighter so they can't move around I can still work."

"We only have one more dose of local anesthetic—even if we had others, drugging you to keep the pain away just so you can sit on command would be dangerous. And pointless; all we're doing right now is scouting along the asteroid belt."

"But—"

"No 'buts'," he interrupted. "Unless there is an emergency, I don't want you getting up off this bunk. Broken ribs can be dangerous. Try and nap…one of us will be in every hour or two to make sure you're all right."

"Every hour?" Radu asked curiously. "Shouldn't we just let her sleep until we find the Rockhopper?"

"Field medicine, Mr. Radu. I don't know Yensiddian physiology, but it's common practice in people with concussions."

_I can do it,_ Catalina offered.

"I'm fine, Commander. I know who I am, who you are, what the year is…besides, Cat says she can do it."

"Concussion symptoms are sometimes delayed in both humans and Rigellians…I don't know about Yensidians, but better safe than sorry. Not that I don't trust Catalina, but if something goes wrong she won't be able to alert us. Rest now."

Suzee rolled her eyes as the two of them stood, marking which doorway they exited through on their way to command. "Rest. Like I'm going to just lay here and nap while the three of them are out there working."

_Suzee, for once just do what he says. I mean, you should be exhausted right now._

"Relax, Cat, I'm fine. I'm not going to do anything crazy. I just want to look around." She waited a few moments, until she was sure the commander wasn't going to come back through with last minute instructions, before carefully swinging her feet over the edge of the bed and standing. She might not be able to go to command, but she could do a little snooping. See if she could find anything else out about this ship. Her first stop was the cabinets in the little room…looked like someone else had already gone through the contents. Probably Harlan. Anyway, there wasn't anything of use there, just a few Spung uniforms and what looked like personal items. The bathroom and shower were on opposite sides of the room…nothing really interesting there either. She wandered back into the bunkroom. There had to be something she could do….

_Who builds a hatch in the ceiling, anyway?_

"A what? Hey, that must be the engine room!"

_Stupid, stupid…of all the times not to keep my mouth shut, _Catalina mumbled, moving beside Suzee as she stared up at the entrance. It wasn't particularly well-concealed, but…who looks for a hatch directly above them? _Come on, Suzee, climbing around definitely isn't good for your ribs. What if the wrap comes loose and you don't notice? With the anesthetic you know you wouldn't. You could get hurt really bad!_

"Look, just help me get the door open. I won't go up there, I promise. You can check it out for me, and tell me if there's anything useful."

_Well…_

"Catalina, please…I can't just lay here and do nothing! Besides, you're always saying that you hate having to stand by and watch while we're in danger…this way you can do something to help."

_All right, all right, but you have to sit down while I'm exploring up there. What if Harlan has to dodge missiles again?_

"I promise I'll stay still. Let's just get the door open."

_I'm going to regret this, I just know it._

There was a panel by the door to command…Suzee had noticed it before and assumed it was for the lights, or locks, or something. And it probably did that too, but maybe… "Got it!"

The hatch swung open, and a ladder fell with it, reaching just to the floor. _Now, you stay here and don't even think about following me, _Catalina reminded her.

"I know, I promise, just go see what's up there." With a last glance at her friend, the Saturnian girl headed up the ladder. Suzee shook her head…she'd spent a lot of time trying to figure out the physical laws of crossing dimensions when she and Cat had first linked—it had been her primary school thesis—and discovered that there really weren't any. But Cat insisted on following the standard laws of physics when she came to visit…walking when she could float, dodging people in the corridors, _climbing_ ladders…. As long as there were no more than 10 or 15 meters or any major metal obstacles between her consciousness and Suzee's to disrupt the link—hence the fact that they had to open the hatch before she could go investigate—she could pretty much do as she pleased, but Cat never took advantage of it. Or at least she didn't realize she did…she wasn't really climbing, after all, her consciousness was simply giving her the illusion that her feet were resting on rungs as she floated up. Still a waste of mental energy. "Well, do you see anything?"

_Give me a minute! And don't yell, Radu will hear you even if he isn't trying to!_

"Fine, just hurry." Suzee sat down carefully, leaning against the bottom of the ladder and staring up into the semi-darkness. She couldn't see much…something up there was glowing and giving some illumination, but all that was visible from her position was the ceiling. "Cat?"

_I'm looking!_

"Suzee, what are you doing out of bed?" Radu asked, coming through the door. "The commander said you were supposed to sleep!" He glanced up at the ladder. "Did you fall? Are you hurt? I'll get—"

"Radu, slow down. I'm fine, I didn't fall…I didn't even try and climb the ladder. Cat and I saw the entrance and it opened from that panel. She's checking it out now; we think it's the engine room."

"The engine room? Well, I guess there had to be one somewhere…did she find anything interesting?"

_Would you people give me a minute? This place is huge…I'm still trying to figure out which consoles do what. And it's really hard since I can't activate the translation program._

"She says she's working on it," Suzee relayed. "It would probably help if you went up and changed the language on the consoles."

"Okay, but we'd better tell the commander what we found first."

"I can use a comm system. Go help Cat before she has a fit."

He helped her to her feet and then started up the ladder as she opened a channel to command. "Catalina and I found the engine room. She and Radu are checking it out now."

"Suzee, you're supposed to be rest—"

"What engine room?" Harlan demanded, interrupting him. "We searched the whole ship!"

"You forgot to look up. And no, Commander, I didn't climb anything. Cat wouldn't let me."

"Good."

_Suzee, tell Radu to get over here! I found some locked cabinets…it looks like whatever is in them is pretty important._

"Well, stick your head in and find out!" Suzee shot back.

"What?" two voices chorused.

"Not you, Commander, or you Radu. I was talking to Cat."

_I tried that,_ Catalina replied. _No light._

"Radu, can you go over and help Cat get the cabinets open?"

"Sure. Um, where is she?"

_I'm right he—ah, tell him I'm about three meters to his left, just behind the shield generator._

Suzee relayed the directions. "Well, what's in them?"

_Hardcopy,_ Cat reported, astonishment clear in her voice. _It's too dark up here, Radu is bringing some of them down now._

"They look like the books Miss Davenport showed us," Radu reported on the heels of Catalina's announcement. "I can't read them right now, though."

Radu appeared at the top of the stairs with a box tucked under one arm. "If there's anything useful in it, I'll get the others. It looked like there were three total."

"What's in them?"

Commander Goddard came through the door as he set the box down on the ground and lifted the lid off. "I thought I told you to stay in bed."

"We were just looking around, Commander. Nothing stressful—Cat was doing all the exploring."

He didn't look convinced, but turned his attention to the pages Radu was rifling through. "What's in there?"

"A lot of star charts, mostly. I don't know why they would keep them locked up."

_Here's one with some notations,_ Catalina offered from over his shoulder.

"What's the one with the writing say?"

Radu glanced down at where she pointed. "Coordinates…it says it's a possible In'Tssai rendezvous point. That's…"

"The resistance group Aslinn and Jacie belong to," Goddard completed. "Good eye, Suzee. Radu, I think you'd better get the rest of those boxes down here."


	17. Very Not Good

**What May Come**

_Please see chapter 1 for author's notes._

Chapter 17: Very Not Good

Harlan maneuvered carefully along the edge of the asteroid belt…Goddard had determined that it was too dangerous to remain completely out in the open so they'd taken to following the outskirts and occasionally ducking back out to query the Rockhopper. So far they hadn't gotten a response. The commander was manning the communications station, and Radu had the papers they'd found spread all over the navigation console. As far as they knew, this time Suzee was resting like she was supposed to be. "So does any of that say anything useful?" he asked the navigator curiously.

"I don't…it's hard…I don't really read Spung very well. It's not something we concentrated on. I'm having to sound out a lot of the words, and if I get the pronunciations wrong it might say something completely different that I think it does. But…if I'm right, it looks like there's some kind of major effort to block the In'Tssai escape routes."

"Well, that makes sense if they've been concentrating on evacuating prisoners," Goddard commented. "Is that why the scout ship was lying in wait?"

"Yeah. I think it had been there awhile, and I don't think it's the only one. That's how they're field testing the new drives."

Harlan frowned. If there were a bunch of the little ships just looking for people leaving the empire…. "Does it say anything else? Have they caught anyone?"

"It doesn't say. There are just charts of 'suspicious' sectors, and a list of names."

"A Spung most-wanted list?"

"It doesn't say…I don't see Aslinn or Jacie or the girl—Cleo—on here, but that may not mean anything."

"They seem to be on the outskirts; the Spung aren't as likely to know who they are as they would people who have done damage in their inner circle," Goddard pointed out. "It could also be a list of people to trust—contacts who know about this tracking program."

"That's more likely," Radu said after a moment. "Most of these names are Spung. There are some numbers after their names…code names, maybe?"

"Well, we'll pass the information on to Jacie and Aslinn when we see them, but there isn't much we can do right now. Unless…are any of the sectors under suspicion in the area we'll be traveling through?"

"One, it looks like, but not until we're on the deckship."

"Kind of unusual to keep paper copies of everything," Harlan said after a moment. "You'd think they'd just keep the information on the computers." It took up a lot less room for one thing, and it had a universal translation program that meant someone besides Radu could read them.

"I don't know…everything is marked 'secret' and the cabinets were locked."

"If the resistance has been around evacuating the Andromedan children since the war—and not getting caught at it—they've probably infiltrated fairly high into the military. This kind of compartmentalization might be a way of reducing who sees the information—try and prevent leaks."

"Or trace who is the one doing the leaking."

"That too, Mr. Band. And information on a piece of paper can't be changed as easily as if it were in a terminal." The console in front of him chimed, and he glanced at the readout. "Incoming transmission."

"This is the Rockhopper calling Goddard, and Radu, and Harlan. Do any of you read?"

Harlan relaxed as he heard Aslinn's voice. "Rockhopper, we read you. Where are you?"

"A bit farther into the belt than you…Jacie's got you on sensors now."

Goddard moved back to the weapons' station, leaving the comm line open. "I see you. Harlan, fly the ship directly into their bay."

"All right, Commander. Radu…"

"Umm…," he swept some of the papers off the console. "Course laid in."

"I'll wake up Suzee," Goddard said. "As soon as we're docked, I want to take her across to the other ship and get her checked out properly."

"Are we all going across?"

"At this point, I think so," he agreed. "At least to plan our next step. When we come out of the asteroid belt permanently to rendezvous with the deckship we'll come back over here, just in case we need to make a fast exit. Two targets are harder to deal with than one. Suzee and I will suit up now and head across as quickly as possible. You two shut the ship down, gather the papers we found, and bring them across when you've finished."

"All right, Commander."

Harlan adjusted course carefully, bringing the scout in line with the bay. As they approached, the comm line strengthened and the viewscreen flickered to life. It wasn't the same room they had been in before. "Man, what happened to you guys?"

"They got in a pretty good hit to the main command post," Aslinn answered with a shrug. There was a nasty gash across his forehead, and streaks of blood down his face. Jacie didn't look much better when he twisted around to face them…assorted bruises covered his face, and his arm now bore a wire cast similar to Aslinn's brace. "My console went up in front of me…he blocked the support beam that came down but it messed up his wrist some. We're working from secondary command now."

"Is your ship still functional?" Goddard asked.

"That's…entirely relative," Jacie replied. "As long as we don't need to do any complicated maneuvering we should be all right. What happened to the girl you rescued?"

"She's sleeping," Goddard said. "I'm on my way to wake her up. We're going to need some of your medical supplies."

"Sure. What have you got there?"

Radu glanced down at his console, still half-covered in papers. "It looks like the Spung are planning to cut off your escape routes. Suzee found some cabinets in their engine room with these locked inside. I can't read them that well, but Harlan and I will bring them over as soon as we finish shutting the ship down."

"Cutting off our escape routes? You mean In'Tssai escape routes? I hadn't heard anything new…" he turned to exchange alarmed glances with the Ashrach at his back.

"Me either…bring everything you found, please."

"How far did the Spung follow you?" Harlan asked as the Commander left to get Suzee.

"Not far…not much past the edge of the belt. I think they were a little more worried about the ship you stole and their missing prisoner."

Jacie turned to grin. "Good thing for us…we don't have much in the way of defense, and hull plating isn't meant to handle concussion missiles. How bad was it for you?"

"It was pretty close," Harlan answered. "They had a capitol ship."

"Damn. Talk about your lousy luck. You all okay?"

"Suzee definitely broke a couple ribs when she fell, but other than that we're okay. I have your ship on the main screen. Man, you weren't kidding about hull plating, were you?" He didn't have a very clear view, but it was pretty obvious that the 'nose' of the Rockhopper now bore a pretty serious dent.

"Unfortunately not." Aslinn tapped his console and the bay doors rotated outward. "All right, bring her in. We'll shut it up behind you."

"What happened to the other escape pod?" Radu asked curiously, glancing at the empty clamps that had held it in place.

"Ejected it." Jacie shrugged. "Not like the scout is any secret any more, and there's no point in having them around when we find your ship…just one more thing that could go wrong. 'Sides, it was another flying object to distract the Spung with."

"You think they got blown up by their own military?"

"Maybe, maybe not. Can't say I care all that much either way, as long as they aren't our problem anymore."

Jacie seemed to agree with his crewmate's assessment of the situation. "Let's get you docked and get back in the belt for as long as we can…won't be good cover for much longer but at least it's something. And I want to see those papers."

Goddard and Suzee were in vacuum suits and gliding across the depressurized bay before Harlan and Radu finished shutting down the main systems, but it wasn't long before they were making their way in through the airlock also, pushing the boxes in front of them. "Man, what did they line these boxes with, bricks?"

Radu just shook his head…no real surprise there; the guy could lift a couple tons when he wanted to. "I hope there's nothing in here that Aslinn and Jacie don't already know about."

"Yeah, me too. Like the commander said, though, there's not a lot we can do."

Jacie was waiting for them inside the hallway leading from the hatch, reaching out with his unbound arm to relieve Harlan of his load. "You make it through more or less in one piece?"

"Couple shots got close, but we're okay," Harlan agreed. "Where are the commander and Suzee?"

"In the rec room…what's left of it anyway. Haven't had time to clean up much since me and the little Ashrach's sparring match. Aslinn's in secondary command."

"That's where you and Commander Goddard were hiding when the Spung came on board, right?"

"Yeah…not as nice a layout as the primary, but that one's sealed until we get in some repair time."

He led the way through the hatch, and they found Goddard on the other side, running something above Suzee's ribs. She lay on the now-righted couch. "Gentlemen, you got the scout shut down?"

"Yes, Commander," Radu confirmed. "How's Suzee?"

"I gave her a sedative so I could use the bone setter…she'll be awake in an hour or two. Her ribs are partially healed now but she needs to take it easy for a couple days."

"We might not have a couple days," Harlan pointed out. The sooner they found the Christa and got out of Spung space the better. He turned to Jacie, who'd dropped the box he'd taken down on the floor and begun rifling through it. "Anything good in there?"

Jacie ignored him. "Radu, give me those."

His search through the next two boxes was more frantic, and Harlan began to get worried. "So…not good news?"

He held up one sheet. "Very not good. I think they've targeted nearly all our transition sectors—they have all the ones I know about for sure. If they've got scouts in all of them…at best we're going to be crippled, at worst they'll capture or kill most of us. I have no idea how they got this much…we're careful. Really careful. We have to be."

"What about the list? If those are the people who know about the program, maybe you could just…get rid of a few of them. If there's no one left to run it, they might cancel it," Harlan offered.

"List?"

"It's a bunch of Spung," Radu said, kneeling to search through the boxes for it. "We think it's the listing of people who know about the program."

Jacie nodded. "Yeah, some assassination is an option. If nothing else, we need to buy some time to alter our routes and get word to the people inside. Aslinn, you hearing all this?"

"Loud and clear…unfortunately," Aslinn's voice came from the comm system. "If we can contact the trio, Cleo's our best bet for a quiet assa—" He broke off as Jacie began to snarl fiercely. "Brother? What's wrong?"

"It's not a list of them, it's a list of us! They tagged us, Az. Don't know how, but they've got Solanin, Rhiase, Brava, Terrik…a bunch of others. I don't know all the names, but it there's enough to be almost everyone on the inside…Taver's on here, Aslinn. And there are dates next to most of the names."

"Oh, hell. What do you mean they have them? Captured already?"

"No, at least I think we'd have heard, but I think they're being watched pretty closely. If they've been following them and picking up on our rendezvous points…if that's how they got all this information…" He shook his head.

"We're as good as dead," Aslinn finished. "Forget relaying…we have to warn the others now. Get as many of us out as we can. Are the dates the times they were identified, or…"

"Don't think so…but they might be arrest dates. The earliest one was two days ago, most aren't for the next couple days."

"Who was it?" Aslinn asked quietly

"Merei."

"Damn. Cleo said they were going in on an emergency the other day, and Rei and Chaya were pretty good friends…. All right, where is the nearest point we can break back into the network?"

"We have to find the Christa!" Harlan objected.

Blank eyes met his, and Jacie shook his head. "Get back to the scout and we'll launch you, but we have to move on this now."

"You said you'd help," Radu tried to protest.

"If they're in a position to take out the resistance, we've got almost 500 people to warn," Aslinn snapped. "Best case with all relays working it takes a week to get a message to the innermost levels. The ones listed on that sheet? They probably don't even know they've been targeted! Rei, at least, would have come out with Chaya and the others on their last run if she'd known. Hell, even assuming we can get hold of these people, someone—meaning us and a couple others—are going to have to be working pretty much constantly on the relays getting them out since they aren't exactly going to be able to hop on the nearest transports."

"You have plenty of fuel in the scout," Jacie interrupted. "Just rendezvous with the Centauri yourselves. I'll give you the comm codes to the others…they aren't going to be secure much longer anyway. We told them who you are, who you're looking for…contact them as soon as you're aboard and maybe they'll know something new. Aslinn, if we cut back towards Gavarta, we should be able to locate Ryxi…she can call in the rest of the transports from the rim and point us towards the ones who'll need immediate evacuation."

"Wait," Goddard interrupted. "How do you know this isn't some kind of elaborate plot by the Spung to draw you out? If you pull out your entire resistance network, you'll be destroying your own ability to fight them."

"If it's a plot, it's the best damn plot I've ever heard of," Jacie snapped. "These aren't random people on their Spung-to-watch list; these are some of our top operatives! And if we leave them inside to get killed, that really doesn't help our network much either. Even if they don't have absolute proof, Spung aren't always real discriminating in their death sentences."

"The odds of them pulling most of our rendezvous sectors out of some hat are pretty damn low too," Aslinn agreed, "so they've got proof of something. I've go the course change laid in. I suggest you four get back to the scout."

"Suzee isn't even conscious!"

Jacie rolled his eyes. "Then carry her. I'll put together a better medpack than our normal portables for you."


	18. On Our Own

**What May Come**

_Please see chapter 1 for author's notes._

Chapter 18: On Our Own

Radu was a little surprised with the speed everything moved…fifteen minutes after Aslinn and Jacie decided they were going the ships were separating. In that time, Jacie had handed over a disk of contact information, sent off half-a-dozen communiqués, and very nearly shoved them out the airlock and onto the scout, while Aslinn did a spacewalk… something about temporary repairs on the engines. Personally, Radu knew he wasn't the best at split-second decision-making. He tended to follow Commander Goddard's orders on the ship and, since they'd started getting along better, Harlan's lead in extra-curricular activities. Not that he couldn't think for himself; he just preferred having time to consider all the options before taking action. An Andromedan thing rather than an Ashrach one, apparently…back on the Triiad station Jacie certainly hadn't had any issues abandoning whatever he'd been working on to help them find their crew—after a short bout of paranoia, anyway—with less than a day's notice. Or, for that matter, abandoning them in Spung space to save his own friends. Not that Radu could blame him for that…not too much, anyway. But now they had no one to help them. They had nothing but a little tiny ship a tentative spot on a Centauri transport—who knew how they'd react to strangers in place of the two they thought they were helping?—and some contact information for people who might or might not even be there. And Suzee was injured.

"Radu? Come in Radu, this is Harlan calling. Buddy?"

"I'm sorry, did you say something? I was just thinking."

"We're almost to the rendezvous point. Want to try a few of those contacts?"

"I…yeah, sure. You want me to?"

"I doubt there are too many humans involved in the resistance," Goddard pointed out. "Besides which, if they've all been raised by Spung that may be the only language they know. We'll have the translation program on, but they might feel more comfortable with someone who looks like they expect and who is speaking their own language."

"All right." He moved to the communication console as the door opened from the ship interior.

"Um, weren't we on your friends' ship a little bit ago, or did I dream all of that."

"Turns out that junk in the box you and Cat and Radu found was pretty important. The Spung are out to capture the resistance, and Aslinn and Jacie had to split to warn the others."

"They just left us here!"

"We have contact information for some of their friends who might be able to help us," Goddard assured her. "And we're still meeting the transport to get us farther into Spung space. We're StarDogs…this is what we train for."

"I don't think any of our classes covered infiltrating a Spung capitol," Suzee pointed out. "And I'm not even a student!"

"How are your ribs?" Radu asked, before she could start on the familiar rant. Granted it was generally directed at Miss Davenport and something she said in classes, but still…

"They're better…just a little sore. So the Rockhopper is gone?"

"Off to find someone called Ryxi," Harlan agreed with a nod. "So off we go, all by our lonesome."

"Mr. Radu, would you start with the first contact?"

None of the first three connections went through…whether people were refusing to respond because they didn't recognize their callers or because they actually weren't around none of them knew. "Commander…what happens if no one answers? Or if they don't know anything?"

"Well then, we're no worse off than we were before. I…Suzee, are you sure you don't remember anyone saying anything when you were onboard the Christa? Maybe a base they were taking the Christa to…someone in command who was running the operation?"

She shook her head. "Sorry, Commander, even when I was in their minds I didn't see anything like that. They might not even have known…wasn't exactly the leaders I—" she broke off suddenly. "Are you sure? Why didn't you say anything before? Are you sure?"

"Suzee, what's happening? Are you talking to Cat?"

"No, I'm channeling Warlord Shank," Suzee shot back. "Who else would I be talking to? She says that right after they knocked the rest of us unconscious and shut Thelma down, one of them mentioned Farthil."

"Who's that?" Radu asked. "It didn't sound like a Spung name, but…

"Or what's that?" Harlan asked on the heels of the navigator's question. "Is it the base or the commander or…?"

"She doesn't know, that's why she didn't say anything before. She was going to have me ask Aslinn and Jacie, but I guess it's a little late now."

Goddard shook his head. "Well, there's no point getting upset about it now. If we can get anyone to answer our hails, we'll ask them. Harlan, while we're waiting, why don't you pull up one of the starmaps of Spung space? If it is a location—planet or station—we might not need anyone's help finding it."

"But they might not have been taken there," Suzee pointed out. "Catalina says one of them just mentioned it."

"It's more than we had before."

"Commander, the message went through…someone is taking our hail." The screen flickered, and a tall, furry man with pointed ears and a flattened nose appeared.

"Ghi speaking. Who are you and how did you get this frequency?"

Radu took a few seconds to shake off the memory of Reaver's crewmate Ubi. The resemblance between him and the man on the screen was disturbing. "This is Commander Goddard, Harlan Band, and I'm Radu. We're from a ship called the Christa…it was stolen a few days ago and Aslinn and Jacie gave us your contact information…didn't you get their message?"

"I've been busy. Are they all right?"

"They're fine, but your resistance might be in trouble," Harlan put in as the translator finished interpreting his words.

Radu nodded. "You really need to hear that message, I'm sure Jacie explained everything."

He frowned. "I assume there is another reason behind your call besides telling me to check my answering service?"

"Have you heard anything about a ship being captured by the Spung?"

"The Spung are at war, at least in the sector I'm in right now. They're capturing a lot of ships."

"But this one is different," Radu told him. "It was built by a race called the Lumanians…it's part machine and part living material."

The man's ears flicked back against his head. "Biomechanoid? No, I can't say I've heard anything about a ship like that. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Have to run now."

"Wait, do you know anything about a planet or a station or something cal—"

The connection was closed before Goddard could finish his question, and Radu frowned. The man's heart had nearly doubled in speed when he'd heard the Christa was partially alive. "I don't think he was telling the truth."

"Yeah, he seemed awful eager to get away as soon as you mentioned what kind of ship it was," Harlan agreed. "I bet he knows more than he said. Where is he, anyway?"

Radu shrugged. "The contact information I have routes through all kinds of satellites…he could be anywhere."

"Not anywhere," Suzee disagreed. "He said he was in a sector where the Spung were fighting a war. They can't be fighting too many wars right now."

Goddard nodded. "Aslinn said something, when we were going to meet some of his informants…the Spung were fighting a border war with someone. The Karbani… Karlabi..."

"Karbali?" Harlan suggested, studying the map on the screen in front of him.

"That's it. He said it was nothing major, but if they were fighting multiple wars I think one of them would have mentioned it to us. "How far away are the sectors adjoining Karbali space?"

"Um…navigation's his job, but the nearest one is about three days from here. Assuming they didn't hyperjump, the Christa would have just arrived today if they went straight from the Triiad station."

"Radu, keep trying to contact the others. Will meeting up with the Centauri get us closer to this sector."

"Uh, yeah…if we travel with them for a day or so, it looks like we'll by able to bypass a couple of the busier trade lanes where someone might notice us and still be able to get to the planet without losing time."

"All right…it might be a long shot, but I'd say that man knew something. Unless we get a better lead, we'll head for the warring area."

"Commander? That's probably where all the Killcruisers are," Radu pointed out. "And we're in a stolen ship."

Harlan nodded in agreement. "Yeah, we better find some way to disguise this thing or they're going to turn us into spacedust before we can save anyone."

"Good point, gentlemen. Suzee, could you and Catalina do a more thorough exploration of the engine room and see if there are any more compartments up there? If nothing else, we could use a bucket of dark grease to change the name and identification numbers on the exterior of the ship."

"Sure, Commander."

"Be careful not to strain your ribs," he called after her.

"Yes, Commander. Cat says to tell you she'll make sure I don't." Radu grinned as he heard the girl continue to mutter to Catalina, quietly enough that the commander wouldn't hear. "Honestly, you'd think I was three years old. I'm an engineering genius, I can certainly manage to open a door all by myself. Be quiet, Cat! That wasn't me, that was my little sister, I just got blamed because I'm the oldest. It's true!"

"Hey, look!"

Harlan's exclamation drew his attention back to the pilot. "What is it?"

His finger stabbed at a point on the map. "Look, right on the border of the sector bordering Kalrabi space. Farthil. Looks like it's labeled an R&R planet."

"Nice work, Mr. Band. I'd say we're definitely on the right track. Mr. Radu, none of the others have answered?"

"Sorry, Commander…I'll keep trying."

"So we've got what, four no-reply's and one lying," Harlan said, making a face. "Somehow I don't think they're all off to a show today. I'm not real impressed with their resistance."

"They've got no reason to trust us," Goddard said with a shrug. "I was afraid this might happen. These people are trying to live under the radar of the Spung empire…without someone to directly vouch for us they aren't going to take any chances. Maybe once they've heard Jacie's message they'll be willing to help."

"Or they'll split and we'll never find out anything."

"That attitude won't help, Mr. Band. We'll keep trying until we're onboard the deckship."

Privately Radu agreed with Harlan…as upset as Jacie and Aslinn had been with the information in the boxes, he doubted that very many resistance workers were going to stay at their posts once the 'evacuate' message had been passed along. And even if they did, their paranoia levels were bound to be way up. But…like the Commander said, they might as well keep trying.


	19. Atsirhc

**What May Come**

_Please see chapter 1 for author's notes._

Chapter 19: Atsirhc

Goddard tried not to sigh as he moved back toward the bunkroom to see what Suzee had discovered. Radu had given up trying to contact any of the other people involved in the resistance for the time being and was working with Harlan to plot a way into the warring sector. A lot depended on being able to disguise the scout though…if the Spung recognized that it was stolen their mission would be over. No convenient asteroid fields this time around. Even more depended on the accuracy of the information they had. Scouts were designed to run independently for long periods of time, but they did need refueling at points. Maybe back on the Spung station they should have put in a request for resupply as long as they were there. Too late to worry about that now, though, and if they couldn't locate the Christa before the ship's power supplies ran down…well, they could cross that bridge when they got to it. "Suzee?"

"Up here, Commander. I found some caulking material that should hold to the hull well enough to change the name of the ship and hold up to a pretty close inspection. And Cat and I think we can alter the engine output to make them look a lot weaker than they are."

"Weak enough to make them pass as an earlier class of ship?"

"Well, I don't have any specs on other ships' power outputs, but if you can find some numbers…yeah, we can probably match them pretty close. Can't change what it looks like, though."

"Except for the new drive, I think this is a pretty standard scout ship. If we can alter the name and the engine outputs—and with the beating we took getting into the asteroid field—we should be able to pass the ship off as quite a bit older than it is. In the UPP, retired ships are sold after their weapons armaments and any classified technologies are removed…I don't see why the Spung should be any different. Otherwise they'd have to pay for the melting down of old hulls."

"Cheaper to sell them off and then refine better ore than try and separate out the trace metals," Suzee said with a nod. "Yeah, that could work. Still need some kind of specs though…maybe there will be something in the computers."

"Do you have the consoles translated?"

"Radu did them all when he was up here. How's it going up there? Have we found anyone who can help us?"

"Not yet."

"How much longer do we have?"

"We rendezvous with the Centauri in about twenty minutes…after that I'm not sure the numbers Jacie gave us will work. They seem to be sector-specific, so when we leave…"

Suzee nodded again. "If he can get the other guy—Ghi?—back on the comm, I can try going into his mind. See what he really knows."

"That might be worth a try," Goddard agreed. "See if you can locate the specs in the next ten minutes, and then come back down to command. How are your ribs?"

"They're fine, Commander. I'm all right, really."

He doubted that 'all right' was a term that applied to anyone who'd been a captive of the Spung, but they didn't have time to argue about it just then. "If you start hurting, go ahead and take another one of the painkillers." She called out agreement as he climbed back down out of the engineering room, taking the pack of caulking with him.

"Commander, what's that?" Harlan asked curiously as he made his way back to command.

"I'm going to do a quick spacewalk before we meet the Centauri and change the name and identification numbers on the ship."

"You think they'd give us up?"

"I think they'd sell their own grandmothers if they thought there was profit in it. After all, it isn't us they owe. Mr. Radu, I need a name and an identification number I can replace the ones already on the hull with."

"Well…" he brought up the numbers on the screen and frowned. "You could change that to a seven…and that back to a one…there's not a lot can be done with those two…um…"

"Show me." He watched carefully as Radu entered a new line of numbers below the old ones, memorizing the lines he would need to add to change the pattern. "All right, how about at name?"

"What about Atsirhc?" Harlan suggested. "Or whatever that set of symbols actually says…looks like Atsirhc to me though. They fit over whatever they've got there now."

Radu shrugged. "It's pronounced Dargah…not a Spung word, at least not as far as I know. It…it sounds like it could be a name, though, so…"

"Dargah it is," Goddard said with a nod. "Where did you get that from, Mr. Band?"

"The letters look like Christa, spelled backwards," he answered with a shrug. "My friends and I used to play a game when we were little…if we didn't want anyone to know where we were going we'd write the names in reverse. Thought maybe if one of the others heard it…I guess they wouldn't get it anyway though, even if they did hear the name. Doesn't' sound the same."

"They might if they saw the ship," Goddard said with a nod. "Forward might be a little obvious since at least some of the military speak Standard, but there's no reason not to use it backwards." Especially if it helped to raise their morale and make them feel like they were doing something, even something little. "Harlan, bring the ship to a halt for a moment so I can get this done. Have you two found a route in?"

"We think so…if hiding the ship really works, anyway."

"Suzee and I came up with another trick or two to help with that. She can explain it when she gets back down here. Radu, try one more time to get hold of the people who haven't answered, and then when Suzee gets here call Ghi again. She's going to try and read him and see what he knows." He waited for both students to nod. "I'm going to get suited up." Actually changing the name and numbers on the ship didn't take long…the caulking held well and was able to spread thin enough to hold up to all but close scrutiny. Which the Centauri would probably be giving it, but there wasn't much else he could do. He floated to the end of the tether to get a good look at the ship…there were enough dings and outright dents that it didn't look much like the neat little ship that had flow up alongside the Rockhopper…what, two days earlier? About that, anyway. It seemed much longer. He reeled himself in and ducked into the airlock, sealing it behind him and shedding the spacesuit. He opened the airlock to see the dejected looks on his three crewmembers' faces. "No luck?"

"No one answered," Harlan said with a shrug. "We tried Ghi, but he didn't pick up again."

"Well then, we go with what we already have. Suzee, did you find the information you need?"

"Not exactly…they don't give any real numbers, but they did list performance improvements for the upgrades they've made to the engines. Working backwards off that I think I can get something close to an earlier power curve."

"All right, how soon can you get it set up?"

"It'll take a couple hours to put in controls that scale everything down but still let us pull it up to full power if we decide we need to. And I'll need a couple extra sets of hands."

"Well, that part won't be a problem. Can you at least determine a max speed for the earlier version so Harlan can get us to the Centauri without raising any eyebrows? I'd rather not blow our cover story before we even have time to tell it by having a ship too high-tech."

"Sure, no problem."

"Uh, Commander? What exactly is our cover story?" Harlan asked.

"Pretty much what Aslinn and Jacie told them. The Spung kidnapped our ship—our perfectly normal, common ship, just like the ones you can find at any spaceport—and some of our crew—who, for the record, are also perfectly average—because of some political agenda. They aren't being held ransom, we have no money, they were just part of a large group that got taken and we're searching for them."

"So basically we're so boring they haven't got any reason to mention us to the Spung or make any connections between us and anything that's happening in the empire."

"Exactly, Mr. Band. We are all perfectly average and boring. I'd rather we spent as much time as possible here on the scout…the less they actually see of us the better, and the less time they have to spend questioning us."

"Well, we can claim engine repairs for the work I'll be doing," Suzee pointed out.

"For the work we'll be doing, at least to them," Goddard said. "I don't know if Jacie mentioned how many of us there were in his last message, but if he mentioned four I want you claiming illness and never showing your face. If the Spung are really looking for telepaths, the may have broadcast your holoimage as a dangerous escapee or something to try and recapture you."

She paled a little. "I didn't think of that."

He was glad to see that she wasn't disregarding his warning, even though he hated giving it. The other two looked equally serious. "We also need to get some sleep while we're on the deckship. I know no one wants to—" he raised his voice to override all three's protests—"but we don't know when we'll have another opportunity. Trust me, people, one thing you learn pretty quickly in any kind of combat situation is to take your rest when you can."

The chime of the comm system drew all of their attention to the screen. "Is it Aslinn and Jacie?" Harlan asked.

Radu shook his head. "No…it looks like it's coming back from one of the messages I left."

"Well, answer it, genius," Suzee told him. "What are you waiting for, an invitation?"

Goddard sighed. Maybe…hopefully…they'd get some more concrete information. "Go ahead, Mr. Radu."

Radu moved back in front of the screen and opened the channel. And rocked back in horror as a Spung man in a military uniform appeared on the screen.

"Close the channel!"

Goddard's words actually followed on the heels of Radu's hand crashing down on the console, breaking the connection. "Th-they found us!"

Harlan had brought up the engines up to full almost as quickly as Radu cut off the transmission. "Can we make it back to the asteroid belt?"

"Wait, Mr. Band. Radu, you said you couldn't find these people's locations because the contacts were through satellite relays, right? Is the same true in reverse?"

"Well…I g-guess so. If he's really calling back from the same location I was trying to contact and didn't cut in on the message somewhere near here." Some of the color returned to his face. "And I think the channels were encrypted, so…they must have captured whoever we were supposed to talk to and just took the message meant for him."

"All right. Well, it looks like Aslinn and Jacie were right to worry. No more transmitting, and don't accept any incoming messages regardless of which contact it comes from. We don't need them knowing anything about us…or posting our holoimages anywhere. Harlan, reduce engine speed and continue our course to the deckship." All three looked shook up by the encounter, and Goddard couldn't blame them. He'd thought Aslinn and Jacie were overreacting…they were both fairly young and didn't have any real training beyond hands-on experience. And even that, as Aslinn had freely admitted, had been on the edges of the movement rather than directly involved with the empire. But…well, they'd obviously been right about the Spung being ready to move on the resistance. From this point out, they were on their own.

"Commander, I've got a large ship on sensors," Radu interrupted his musing.

"The Centauri?"

"I'll know in a momen—it's the deckship. They're hailing."

"Open a channel, and let me do the talking. I'm fairly certain traders speak Standard. Suzee…hide."

"His name is Shavic," Harlan reminded him. "And we need to get off in Antarsh."

"I know, Mr. Band." He took a deep breath as the screen cleared and a man's image appeared on the screen. "Captain Shavic, I presume?"

"You are Goddard, yes?"

"Yes, sir. You've spoken to Aslinn and Jacie."

"To Jacie. Transporting you to Dartholm cancels our debt to them. Beyond transportation, anything else you need will require payment in full or signature of appropriate contracts."

"We understand," Goddard agreed. "If it is acceptable to you, we don't need transportation all the way to Dartholm." Wherever that was. "If you could let us off in the Antarsh sector, we'd appreciate it."

"Do Aslinn and Jacie understand that this favor will still be considered full repayment of our debt to them?"

"Absolutely," Goddard assured him. At this point, he doubted they'd give a damn where the Centauri left them. A fact he certainly didn't plan on telling these guys. "Where should we dock the ship?"

"Shut down your engines, we'll bring you in."

Goddard nodded to Harlan. "Do it, Mr. Band."


	20. In the Meantime

**What May Come**

_Please see chapter 1 for author's notes. Just to let people know, there are between four and eight chapters left…they're outlined, just working on fleshing them out._

Chapter 20: In the Meantime…

Bova leaned back against the wall, blinking his eyes as he awoke from his nightmare. He tried to remember if he'd mentioned the possibility that the Spung could always lose control of the tethers hauling the Christa and send the ship careening into a sun on their way past. Probably. Either the Spung had figured out that no one but the crew could control the Christa and didn't trust the students to do as they were told, or—more likely—thought they'd done something to freeze the controls in place and found it simpler to tow the Christa wherever they wanted it to go rather than trying to fix the problem. Or they'd blown the command post to pieces and were just towing them to the spacial equivalent of a garbage dump to sit and float for the rest of eternity. There weren't that many Spung left on board…a bunch had left at the same time they'd taken Suzee away. They didn't even know if she was still onboard and locked up elsewhere or if she had been taken to a different ship. The three of them had been locked in the team room since then. Once a day a food tube was delivered for each, but it was the only contact with the outside world they had. And since the food wheel dispensed food for whoever turned it…even he had trouble digesting what the Spung considered a meal. He glanced over to see Rosie leaning on Miss Davenport, both still apparently asleep. Rosie hadn't said much since the Spung had come onboard, but then again there wasn't that much to be cheerful about. Thelma was deactivated, Suzee was missing, and Commander Goddard, Radu, and Harlan…for all they knew, they were still stuck back on that stupid station. What were proof-of-ownership papers, anyway? No one used hardcopy anymore. He rose, beginning to pace again.

"Bova, you're awake." He glanced over again to see Miss Davenport, now with her eyes open. "Rosie? So we've all had a quick nap. I'm sure now that we're refreshed we'll be able to come up with some better ideas."

"They're probably just going to pump poison gas in," Bova felt he had to point out.

"They would have done that already," Rosie said quietly. "They're planning something else."

"That's right," Miss Davenport agreed. "And we'll be ready for them. Now, we've figured out that Bova can't short the doors from here, and Rosie can't burn through them, and I can't get to any important computer systems. What do we have?"

"Bad food and Harlan's video games."

"Mr. Bova, we're brainstorming."

"We have model building materials…glue," Rosie volunteered.

"Good, we could use that. What else?"

"Heavy furniture? If Radu was here, he could throw it at them."

"Unfortunately, Mr. Radu isn't here, but it's still a good suggestion. We've figured out that we can't climb the jumptubes, but we still have these ropes we made also."

"We should use them to hoist the furniture? We'll either rupture something or crush ourselves!" Miss Davenport was handling this much better than he'd ever have expected, but maybe she was closer to the edge than he'd realized.

"I'm just pointing out the materials available."

"Maybe we could find a way to call a gizbot," Rosie suggested. "They aren't critical systems…the Spung probably don't even know about them. One of them could probably let us out of here."

"Contact them how? Miss Davenport spent a whole day trying to hack into the communications systems…all she got was a headache."

"We don't need the external array though…that's not how Thelma calls them, is it?"

"Well, no," Bova admitted. "At least I don't think so." They didn't really know how Thelma did much of anything, but using the external array was about the most inefficient way he could think of. "I think she must talk to the Christa…ask her to send them."

"So we just have to figure out a way to talk to the Christa." Rosie was starting to brighten. "I'm sure the Christa will help us…she likes us."

"And if she's the 'excellent judge of character' Thelma claims, I doubt she likes the Spung," Miss Davenport agreed.

"We're talking about the same android that once referred to a group of people trying to blow us to spacedust as 'polite killers', right?" He held up his hands at her glare. "All right, all right, just pointing out that Thelma's own opinions are sometimes…skewed."

Miss Davenport moved back to the V.R. equipment they'd spent the morning before manipulating to allow her an interface from which to hack into the rest of the ships systems. It hadn't work, but they hadn't disassembled any of it. "All right, the matrix is activated. Ready to call the Christa. Um…any idea how I go about doing that? Rosie, if she can understand us, why don't you try? She'll recognize you as a crewmember, and you're good at talking to people."

"I…okay." She slipped on the headset. "Um, hi, Christa. Can you hear me?" There was no response, and she gave a weak giggle. "Well, I guess if she could talk directly to us, we wouldn't be having this problem anyway. Christa? If you can hear, me, we could really use your help. See the Spung have boarded—you probably know that already. There aren't very many of them on you anymore though, so if we could just get out of here, we might be able to get away. If you can't open the door yourself, could you maybe send a gizbot to do it?" Again, nothing, and she shook her head. "I don't know, Miss Davenport…I'm sure she heard us, but I don't know if she can do anything."

"Now, now, we mustn't lose hope. I'm sure the Christa will do everything in her power to help. After all, I doubt she wants to be disassembled or used as a warship or whatever they have planned."

"So we sit and wait for a machine that may or may not be coming depending on whether our semi-sentient ship happened to understand us?"

"No, Mr. Bova, we keep thinking. We want as many options as possible available to us."

Unfortunately, Miss Davenport didn't seem to have too many more ideas either. They'd been able to hold off the Spung when they'd first boarded, and then spent some time chained to a wall, but shortly after the Spung had taken Suzee they'd tossed the rest of the crew in this room and they'd been working to get out ever since. For people who didn't know anything about the Christa, they'd managed to block most of the crew's escape attempts pretty neatly. "We could try going up the jumptubes again," Rosie suggested. "We almost made it, last time."

"And we almost gave ourselves concussions when we fell back down for the fifth time."

Miss Davenport rubbed her shoulder. "I think I agree with Bova on this one…we'll save that option for last. Perhaps one of you could get out through the ventilation ducts."

"So we can be first in line when they start pumping in the gas? Besides, I think the most any of us could fit into a shaft would be our arms."

"Mr. Bova, think positively please."

Well, someone had to keep pointing out the flaws in their plans…. He shook his head. "I could try shorting the door controls again…maybe a higher voltage would do something." It was their turn to wince. The last time they'd tried that the currents had been routed around the room and all of them had gotten zapped—fortunately mildly—at least once.

"How about some new ideas?"

"Okay, how about…" Rosie fell silent. "I can't think of anything."

"Well…." There was a noise, and all three turned to see the door open. One Spung threw in a pack of foodstuffs while two others waited on either side, weapons ready. They'd learned their lesson when Bova and Thelma had been knocking them out back on command.

"Joy, dinnertime." Bova couldn't bring himself to be excited about what the Spung considered good food; even gruel would be better than most of it. At least he wouldn't have to kill that before he could eat it. Rosie refused to touch any of it after her first meal had tried to climb off her plate when she stuck a fork in it.

"Now, now, we have to try and keep our strength up. I'm sure there will be something in there that we can eat."

"I'm holding my breath."

"Mr. Bova…"

He reached out, opening the first tube since it didn't appear that either of them was that eager to touch it. Some kind of worms…they'd seen it before. None of them had tried it—or wanted to. The second was dark mush. A possibility. The third he rehydrated and found something furry and moving sitting on the plate. "I'm still curious how the Christa has managed to dehydrate living matter."

"I'd rather leave that a mystery," Miss Davenport muttered, followed immediately by a sneeze. "Um…put it back in the tube."

"No, don't do that!" Rosie reached out to lift it off the plate before Bova could point out that it wouldn't fit in the tube anyway. "It's cute."

"It's not cute, it's someone's din—ah-ah-ah-choo! Just…put it somewhere away from me."

Rosie wrapped it—whatever it was—in a blanket and put it on the far side of the room. "The poor thing must be terrified."

"Well, we've done our good deed for the day…now what do we do about the Spung?"

There was a whirring, clanking sound, and Rosie turned. "It's a gizbot! She heard us!"

"This is excel—ah-choo—excellent. Get it to open the door again."

"But it didn't come in through the door," Bova pointed out. "We were looking in that direction…it came in behind us."

"Well, get it to open something, just get us out of here!"

He left it to Rosie to talk to the gizbot…if one of them needed to sweet-talk the thing, it sure as heck wasn't going to be him. Whatever she said apparently worked, because it whirred its way over to the door and went to work with some sort of laser tool. "What's it doing?"

"Well, the Spung can't control the Christa…they must have put some sort of clamp or latch on the other side to hold it closed and defeat Rosie's heating powers," Miss Davenport theorized. "At least it looks like he's getting through."

"Where are we going when we get out?" Rosie asked. "Command?"

"I think we'd better find somewhere to hide and observe first. To plan our next move. If we go to the primary engine room…"

"We stopped using that when we found the other one," Bova pointed out.

"Exactly…the Spung probably haven't found it yet. We can observe their movements from there and if we need to we can activate the hyperdrive."

"A blind hyperjump when we aren't even on command to steer!"

"Only as a last resort, Mr. Bova, but at least it will be an option."

The three of them began to move quickly through the corridors, trying to be as quiet as possible. There weren't many Spung left on the ship as far as they knew, unless more had come onboard in the days they'd been locked in the team room, but the Spung were armed and they weren't. And for all the three of them knew, the Spung could be hiding around the next corner. He charged up his antennae as best he could after having not eaten for several days, and he could feel the radiation as Rosie allowed some of her internal heat to come to the surface. No one was going to grab her again. They were almost to the engine room when the gizbot leading them began to squeal. "I just knew it."

"Radu?" Rosie's astonishment was her downfall as a Spung rounded the corner directly behind the Andromedan boy, leveling a weapon in their direction. Two other Spung were on his heels, one male and one female, both armed.

"Who are you and what do you think you're doing?" the first demanded in flawless Standard.

"Who are you?" Miss Davenport demanded in return.

"The ones with the weapons. I'm guessing you're the crew they captured. One human, one Mercurian, and one Uranusian. Hm. Dahak, take them and lock them up…I don't care where. Somewhere out of the way. And get rid of…that thing."

He gestured sharply at the gizbot and the Andromedan boy—on closer examination a little taller than Radu and with much narrower features—moved forward. And slapped the gizbot into the wall hard enough to crumple a good portion of it. "Go. I'll follow."

Bova didn't wait for Miss Davenport or Rosie to make the first move—as soon as they were out of sight of the three Spung he turned and fired the strongest blast he could manage at the boy who followed behind them. Who spun out of the way and brought up one leg for a kick.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

"Bova? Bova, are you all right? Wake up…please wake up."

He blinked as Rosie's voice penetrated, trying to bring his arm down to rub at his eyes. And found that they wouldn't move. "Wha…? Where…?"

"You're okay. We made it to the engine room," Rosie offered. "We're…kind of chained up, though. And I don't think the gizbot will be able to help us this time."

"I…are you okay? Is Miss Davenport okay?"

"She's unconscious, but I think she'll be okay. She passed out when he hit you. You hit the wall so hard and just slid to the floor…" she trailed off.

"I'm okay, Rosie. Well, I probably have a concussion," he frowned as he thought. "And maybe some internal bleeding. It's hard to tell. How long have we been in here?"

"About an hour, maybe a little more." Rosie glanced around at the controls. "At least we're in here. If we can figure out a way to get free, we won't have to sneak anywhere else."

"Yeah. Right. Miss Davenport? Miss Davenport, wake up. Did she hit her head when she fell?"

"No…he caught her, actually. Then he said he'd break one of your necks if I tried anything…he said to lead the way to an unoccupied room, and since everything in here was powered down I thought—"

Her voice was steadily rising in pitch, and Bova figured he'd better cut her off before she overheated. "Yeah, that was a good idea. Can you melt through the restraints?"

"Not without bringing the temperature in the room to dangerously high levels. Maybe you can blast them off."

"I'll give it a try." He summoned the strongest charge he could and aimed a blast at the cuff on his right wrist. It warped slightly but didn't open as current flowed through it. "I don't think that will work. You can't slip out of them?"

"No…he bent the metal down tight against my wrists."

Both stopped trying to pull out of the wall as the door opened and the female Spung they'd seen earlier stepped through. "Not even think to blast me…Dahak will hear and my brother will not like."

"The Andromedan is your brother?" Rosie asked.

"Dahak is Ashrach. He belong to…family." The girl shrugged, glancing around the room. "Not smart…he not even know this engines here. Still…you have chains. And nothing to do as power is not here." She shrugged. "Your crew defeats Warlord Shank three times? Would believe not likely."

"Mmm." Miss Davenport shook her head, blinking. "What happened?"

"You fainted when the Andromedan hit Bova," Rosie supplied. "Don't you remember?"

"Rem—oh, dear! Bova! Are you all right?"

"I'm chained to a wall with a Spung staring at me, so I suppose that depends on your definition of 'all right'. My head only feels like it's been cracked rather than split all the way open."

"Ah…good," she said after a moment. "Who are you?"

The Spung shrugged. "Malee. Tactics, special squad three. We interrogate you."

"Interrogate us?"

"Find how ship works. Why we not can use the controls. Those things. Not worry, we are not start now…need to clear out sector first." She shrugged. "Will send Dahak down with food."

"Could you possibly make it edible?" Bova asked. "Even I can't manage what you people eat."

"Not biggest of your problem." She turned, tail knocking against the doorframe on her way out.

"Um, this is bad," Rosie said. "They know who we are…Warlord Shank probably knows where we are."

"Well, I suppose we have more incen—," Miss Davenport broke off suddenly. "I think…this restraint is cracked. I can move my hand in it." She tugged lightly.

"Can you get out?"

"Not…not yet, but I might be able to loosen it some more. Have you tried yours?"

"No luck," Rosie reported. "But he must not have been being careful when he tightened your restraints…gripped a little too tightly. We'll be able to get out of here in no time!"

"Keep your voice down!" Bova hissed. "Who knows how close the Andromedan—Ashrach—whatever—is."


	21. So Where Are They?

**What May Come**

_Please see chapter 1 for author's notes._

_Lines in italics designate speech from an alternate dimension._

Chapter 21: So Where Are They?

Suzee relaxed as Harlan brought the little ship into line, between two freight carriers headed into the warring sector. Fortunately there was a steady stream of traffic in the freight lanes, and a little ship like theirs wouldn't be worth scrutiny. It had been a tense couple days…their time on the Centauri ship had been decidedly unpleasant. They'd kept appearing at the hatch or comming at unusual times, obviously hoping to draw information out of their passengers. Goddard hadn't gotten any sleep trying to fend them off. Things had gotten a little better once they'd been back under their own power, but it had still been a long two days. Made longer by the knowledge that unless they could find someone to refuel the scout without noticing what it actually was—decidedly unlikely—it was a one-way trip. Stress levels were rising…Harlan had started something with Radu, or at least something he'd said had annoyed the Andromedan enough to make him fight back and they'd been going back and forth ever since. Goddard had been keeping to himself as best he could on the small ship—most conversations with him ended up revolving around the functionality of the little scout. Apparently overwork was how he kept himself from worrying. And honestly, Suzee was feeling pretty on edge herself…her ribs felt better, but her head was still hurting. She'd just gotten up from a nap, but her concussion still wasn't fully healed and the headache wasn't helping matters.

"Why don't you two grab a nap?" Goddard suggested, looking at the pilot and navigator.

"I'm not tired," Harlan responded.

"Me either."

"Gentlemen, there is no point in all four of us standing here for the four or five hours it will take this line to reach the heart of the sector. Suzee and I had the last rest period, and this may be the last opportunity any of us get for awhile."

They glanced at each other with more animosity than either had shown in quite awhile. "Fine," Harlan agreed after a moment.

"Okay, this is getting ridiculous," Suzee said after they'd left command. "I thought they'd declared a truce after you made them run all those diagnostics for waking us up with their yelling. What's going on?"

"I have no idea," Goddard said after a moment. "They started this back on the Centauri ship, and it's just gotten worse. I know it's mostly due to stress, but we all need to be working together if we're going to help the others. Hopefully some rest will give them some perspective."

_Because that's always worked so well in the past. I suggest smacking their heads together—at least it will get their attention. I mean, what are they thinking? You don't have enough problems; they should go and revive these idiotic arguments…I mean, I'm pretty sure Harlan brought up his father and the war again! He knows damn well Radu didn't have anything to do with any of that! And then Radu makes some stupid comment about Harlan trying to control ev…_

Catalina hadn't stopped speaking, Suzee had just stopped listening. Not that she disagreed—of all the ways to relieve tension, picking fights with crewmates was pretty stupid—but ranting about it wasn't going to help. They had more immediate problems. "How are we going to find the Christa? I mean…space is big, and we don't even know for sure that it's this sector they were towed to. There are three others that border Kalrabi space."

"I'm not sure, honestly. Farthil is in this sector so I think it's the best place to start, but you know as well as I do that there are no guarantees. Shipping manifests should be listed somewhere, but I'm not sure how the Christa would be listed. If she'd be listed. Could we use the scout to listen in on military channels? Like an old-time CB radio? I know the comm system has quite a bit of filtering capability."

"Well, I can try…we probably have some of the encryption codes. I don't know how often they change them though." It had to be often enough to keep enemy spies from getting them, but if they changed too often there's no way the ships in combat would be able to keep up. She crossed to the communications console. "I'll see what we've got."

"Will we be able to use the universal translators on the transmissions, or should I wake Radu up?"

Suzee frowned for a moment. "There's no reason we shouldn't be able to use the translators." After all, the signals would be coming through the comm channels.

_And if he gets up Harlan will too and you don't want to listen to them arguing_, Cat added.

"That too," Suzee agreed under her breath. "I'll see what I can do, but this is more Rosie's area of expertise. It might take me some time to figure out what is what."

"Just do your best."

"Cat, give me a hand…there are a lot of frequencies to sort through."

Six hours later found both girls still staring in frustration at the communications console. _You know, I suddenly have a lot more respect for Rosie if she has to go through this every time the Christa gets an unclear signal,_ Catalina said with a sigh. _I mean, we're getting nowhere._

"I don't think it's this bad, most of the time…at least she has somewhere to start with garbled messages. We've got a couple thousand possible transmission frequencies—probably more like tens of thousands—a good portion of which had some form of data on them. And who knows whether any of the data is any good?" That drew a glare at one of the possible frequencies they'd caught almost immediately…two hours and a minor migraine later they'd found out that what they'd so meticulously isolated was some sort of Spung game show. Apparently some form of encryption was used on entertainment broadcasts to prevent random citizens from tuning in without paying. And all the numbers that had sounded so promising when coming through were actually contestant identification numbers and prize amounts. The only positive aspect had been that it had allowed them to work out some of the bugs in isolating frequencies and putting them through the translator and the different decryption sequences without distorting the information beyond recognition—since then they'd been able to do checks and discards much faster. "There has to be a better way to do this. I mean, the computer is cycling through the frequencies as we speak, but we have to actually listen to the ones it flags as possibles to figure out whether it's any good…there's just too much data to work with here."

"Some sort of filter?" Goddard suggested.

She shrugged. "If I knew what to filter on, maybe…I wish Miss Davenport was here. She's good with all this programming stuff. Give me a hyperspanner any day." As soon as the words were out of her mouth Suzee realized how stupid the comment was—if Miss Davenport was with them, they wouldn't be searching for her—but…hell, she was tired and her head hurt and they weren't getting anywhere.

_Does he know you're talking to me?_ Catalina asked absently, studying the readout in front of her. _He's been answering all along, even when it doesn't make any sense for you to be talking to him._

"Probably not. Made a couple good suggestions though, no point in saying anything."

"About what?"

"Just something Cat said." She glanced out at the line of ships still stretched out in front of them. "How much longer are we going to be stuck in this mess? I thought we were supposed to reach the heart of the sector an hour or two ago."

"We were…unfortunately we seem to be caught in the first space-traffic jam I've ever seen. I'm not even sure why we're moving so slowly…I think we'll be in a safe area to pull out and hide the scout in another hour or so though. Are you having any luck with that?"

"Sorry, Commander. I'll keep trying."

"All right. How's your head?"

"It's okay."

_Liar._

Suzee rolled her eyes at her best friend. "Shut up."

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, not you, Commander. I was talking to Catalina. Are you going to wake up Harlan and Radu?"

"Not just yet…I'd rather let them rest while they can. Do you need to take a break?"

"No, I'm fine. I was just wondering." She glanced back at the console. "Cat and I have plenty more work to do here."

_What about this one? It's got one of the more obscure encryptions on it…might be something military._

"Something military as in ship listings, or something military as in some Warlord's dinner orders?"

_How am I supposed to know? Play the message._

"Right. Sorry." If they could just identify a military frequency or two…then she would rest. And take another dose of pain medication. Just as soon as they found a useful channel. She forced her attention back to the voice coming through the speakers. "Varadirium? That's seriously radioactive, isn't it?"

_I'm pretty sure…and I was doing okay in science. What do you think he's talking about radioactive materials for?_

"Well, I doubt it's anything good. Probably some kind of explosive. This sounds more like research, though, not anything they're using now." They'd found a few channels like that, although the others seemed to concentrate on biological and chemical weapons. "I'll flag it anyway."

_Maybe we could narrow the search patterns for a specific encryption? Try and get a smaller selection we actually have to clean up and listen to?_

"We've already done that though…we're discarding the ones we know are civilian and merchant, but we don't have anything else we know of to block on. Different entertainment broadcasts use different ones, each merchant company has their own…there are just so many possible encryptions…. I mean, just look at how many decryption files the scout has access too…we haven't even touched on more than a fraction of them!"

_Well, this one looks like research, and it's not one that's been common. The computer pulls all the rough possibilities, right? And then we go one- by-one to narrow them down to something we can actually listen to and work with and figure out whether it's actually anything we care about. That's what's taking so long._

"Right" That was what they'd been doing for the past several hours…why Catalina felt the urge to point it out again now was beyond Suzee. "You have a better way to do it?"

_Kind of. Well, not exactly…see, the research is an uncommon encryption. The computer knows that…it can determine the frequencies of each type of encryption code. Right?_

"Yeah. So?"

Catalina shook her head, obviously frustrated. _So that's it, don't you see? The military is doesn't give out their encryption codes to just anyone, so they aren't going to be very common._

"And since we can determine approximately how much of each type of encryption is being used…that's brilliant!"

"Suzee?" The commander turned to look at her. "What is it?"

"We have to search for the uncommon encryptions! I'm programming the computer to bring in signals ordered by type of encryption used. If we're lucky, different portions of the military will be using different types of encryption so if we can just determine what kind the ship-stealing ones use..."

"Do you have something that will work?"

"I think so…I'm not totally sure, but I think it will work better than what we've been using. It's still going to take some time to figure out, but if we do only one or two messages per encryption type instead of just working our way through random messages the computer identifies…I think we'll be able to find something useful."

"Excellent work."

_Here's one…the least common encryption the computer has seen. Let's hope this works._


	22. Distractions

**What May Come**

_Please see chapter 1 for author's notes._

Chapter 22: Distractions

Harlan yawned, sitting up on his bunk and narrowly missing hitting his head on the bunk above. "Why do they build these things so low, anyway?"

"Hm?"

He glanced over to see Radu move to a sitting position on the bunk beside his, rubbing at his eyes. Normally he'd have made a joke about the accommodations, but he wasn't feeling particularly humorous. "Nothing. How long were we asleep?"

"Sev—seven hours!"

"What? The commander should have woken us up as soon as we got into the center of the sector." Radu didn't comment, standing and moving towards the door. Harlan pushed past him and led the way onto the command post. "Commander? Suzee? Is something wrong? Why didn't you wake us up earlier?"

"Everything is fine, Mr. Band, and there was no point in waking you. Traffic is moving slower than expected…apparently the sector guard posts are a little undermanned. We made it past the check point without even being scanned; they're concentrating on the merchants and cargo ships."

Harlan heard Radu come up behind him but ignored the navigator. "How close are we?"

"I'm planning on pulling out of the main traffic path in a few moments...we should be able to remain hidden in the primary Farthil shipping yard for at least a short amount of time."

"But…what happens when they notice us?" Radu asked.

"Well, then I guess we leave," Harlan replied, sarcasm in his voice. What the hell did the navigator think they were going to do?

Radu ignored his baiting. "Do you have any ideas about how to find the Christa? Unless she's in the yard here?"

"Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case. Suzee is working on identifying military communication channels. Hopefully we'll be able to identify one that will have some information on the Christa, or at least is used to transmit that type of information. Then we listen in until we find out something useful."

Well, that was good news, anyway. Maybe they wouldn't be searching completely blindly. "Anything yet?"

"No." Suzee seemed distracted, staring off into the space beside her, away from the rest of the crew. "Cat, this doesn't seem to be working right…we're finding all kinds of unusual information—some of which I absolutely _never_ wanted to know—but there's nothing military coming in. Nothing! Do you think they might have changed comm codes and now they're coming in with encryptions we don't have?" Whatever Catalina's reply was, she shook her head sharply. "But we should still be hearing something! Even encrypted static."

"What are you listening for?" Radu asked.

She ran a hand through her hair. "We've got the communications lines separated by frequency of encryption used. The computer is doing that. Since the military doesn't give their codes to everyone, we're starting from the least commonly used, cleaning up a couple signals from each enough that we can listen and determine what that encryption is used for, and deciding whether it's useful or not."

"And you've gotten nothing so far?"

She shrugged. "Well, we've only been working on this method for a little over an hour, and it takes about ten minutes to clean up one of the isolated messages enough to listen to, but…no. We now know what size of dress some shipyard chief's mistress wears, what type of fungus is currently infecting the grass in the Farthil botanical gardens, and several other useless random facts, but nothing so far is even vaguely military."

"It's all right, Suzee," Goddard assured her. "You just started. Now that you've got a method for testing, why don't you show them how you're doing it and you can go get a short rest yourself?"

"I'm fine, Commander, honestly, and Cat wants to keep working too."

"Why don't you show them anyway? Maybe we could modify one of the other consoles enough to allow us to listen to more than one channel at once. The computers should have the capability."

"Well…yeah."

Harlan looked around the command post. "I think we better leave the helm alone…and tactical…" That left engineering and navigation for their attempts to add a new function. Navigation was a possibility—even if they messed it up royally, Radu could probably manage on his own—but not engineering, not if they needed the special engines again.

Suzee was shaking her head. "I think we better leave everything down here alone. There were a couple extra consoles up in the engine room that didn't look very used. We should be able to modify one of those without worrying about other functionality. In fact…we should probably check first and see if they don't have a secondary command post up there."

Radu nodded. "If there is, there should already be a second communications console."

"No way we're that lucky."

"Well, it can't hurt to look."

Harlan was about to snap at the navigator when Suzee interrupted, showing them how they were cleaning up the signals the computer had identified and then passing them through the translation program. The one she picked to test didn't have any useful information coming in…some sort of class-by-vid type of thing, but at least the process wasn't difficult to follow. "So we check out engineering and figure out what might be able to be rigged for spying?"

Goddard nodded. "That's the plan. Radu, I'm going to be pulling into the shipyard in a moment so I want you down here in case anyone has any questions. Suzee, Harlan, you go see what you can work out in the engineering bay."

"All right, Commander. Come on, Cat." Suzee led the way, climbing the ladder into the hidden room carefully.

"Are you okay?"

"My ribs are still a little sore," she admitted.

He had a suspicion that they were more than a little sore if she was actually admitting she was hurting, but there wasn't much he could offer. "Is it time for another dose of the painkiller?"

"Not for another hour. I'll be fine, honest." She moved towards the engine core, checking consoles as she went.

He followed her, unsure of what he could do. He hadn't been doing all that well in engineering in school…not that he wasn't pretty decent at math when he wanted to be, but sitting working on wiring just didn't interest him. "Anything we can use?"

"Well, there's definitely no secondary comm console here—"

"Knew there wouldn't be," Harlan muttered. "It's just a scout for goodness sake, what does he think, they've got unlimited room?"

"It didn't hurt to check," Suzee replied with an odd look on her face. "What's going on with you two, anyway? You two have been sniping at each other for the past two days. Haven't seen you acting like this since before Catalina and I traded places. It's starting to drive me any the commander a little crazy."

"I don't know…he started it. He just says this completely pointless stuff…"

"Radu? Half the time he doesn't open his mouth when he should! Come on, something must have happened."

Harlan shrugged uncomfortably. "I don't really know. I just…I keep getting irritated when he's around, and he's jumpy when I'm around too."

"Probably because you've been snapping at him every time he says something!" She turned slightly off to the side for a moment. "I'm not…I'm not saying it's all your fault or anything. This whole situation is hard on all of us, and he can be pretty irritating too when he wants to be. But can't you just—can't you call a truce or something?"

The whole situation was kind of ridiculous, even he was willing to admit it…the whole thing had started with an argument about Jacie and Aslinn leaving—not even an argument, really, since they'd both agreed that the other two had to go, they just didn't agree on the timing—and he'd said something stupid about Andromedan loyalty. Radu hadn't taken it very well. Harlan hadn't even meant Andromedans, really, since he'd only been talking about the Ashrach boy, but comments like that had become part of his repertoire back at the StarAcademy. Since he and Radu normally avoided sensitive topics when they talked, he'd never bothered to break the habit. Unfortunately, loyalty was one of the areas Radu was sensitive about, and he'd responded with a comment about Harlan wanting to control everyone and how they acted. Just because he was a good leader didn't mean he always took over everything! It's not like he wasn't trying to take over Suzee's job while she did complicated things to the Christa's engines or tried to tell Radu how to navigate—he really wasn't any good at that subject, anyway—he just was better at quick decisions than them. Anyway, the argument had escalated and they hadn't been able to agree about anything for the past couple days. Which was a pretty bad situation to be in if they had to get into a fight with the Spung. "I guess a truce would be okay. It was a pretty pointless argument in the first place." He wasn't going to be the one to make the first approach, though—he hadn't even been talking about Radu, the navigator was the one who made it personal.

"Wonderful."

She crossed back to one of the other consoles and he moved closer. "Will that one work?"

"I think so. It's pretty generic…there are some references to a shield generator, but nothing specific. Maybe something they have in development. Anyway, it can already tune to different frequencies, so it's just a matter of telling it to look at the communication ones instead of the ones for shielding harmonics."

"Are you sure the ship doesn't have a shield using this stuff? I don't want to end up in a firefight and find out we disabled our best defense." A shield would have come in handy back when they were dodging missiles.

Suzee shook her head. "Unless the Spung have designed invisible shield generators, they never finished installation. I'm not really surprised…they take up a lot of space and a lot of power, and for a ship this size I don't think a shield would be worth it."

"So why did they put the console in?"

"How would I know?" She was silent for a moment. "Cat thinks they might be using the scouts to test a bunch of new experimental stuff, like the drives we were using before. She could be right—if something goes wrong they don't lose much material, not like if they lost a cruiser, and there are only a few crewmembers on each."

"I think I'd rather not have known that. But can we use the console to listen in on their conversations?"

"I…yeah, just give me fifteen minutes. Twenty at the most. You might want to go down and tell Commander Goddard that we found something."

"Yeah, sure. Be right back." Radu didn't even look up at he reentered the command post, although Goddard turned back towards him with a frown. "Mr. Band? Is something wrong?"

"No, Suzee just wanted me to let you know that she found something she thinks will work. I guess it was supposed to be for some kind of experimental shield generator that never got built, at least that's what she and Catalina think."

"All right, excellent work."

"Commander? I think she might not be doing as well as she says she is."

Radu did look up sharply at that. "What do you mean?"

Harlan fought down the urge to ask just what else he thought it could mean. "She actually admitted she's in pain…she says she can't take any more painkiller for awhile yet though."

"She's right. Still…Radu, why don't you go up with Harlan, and send Suzee back down here? The lights are dimmer in here, and I can pull them down even more. There's not a lot you can do to dim the power core up there."

"Why do you want to dim the lights?" Radu asked.

"I suspect her concussion still isn't fully healed, and bright lights and loud noises tend to aggravate the condition. The best medicine would be rest, but we just don't have the time. There's no more piloting to do so I'll take the communications console now, you two do on up and send her down as soon as she's finished making whatever adaptations she needs to make."

Radu nodded without commenting, following Harlan into the bunkroom and up the ladder. "How's it going?"

"Pretty well. Just finished crossing the wires I needed to, now it's just a matter of telling the computer what I want it to do. Why are you both here?"

"Commander Goddard wants you to work down there with him and we'll be up here."

She glanced up at them in disbelief but didn't comment. "All right…I've got another ten or fifteen minutes to finish this up." The three of them sat in silence until she finished and moved towards the ladder. "I'll call up the encryption code the commander is on right now, you work the one after that, and we'll each go every other one until one of us hits something."

"Yeah, right."

"Radu moved up beside him as he sat down in front of the console. "She's right, you know."

Harlan didn't bother asking what he was talking about. "Didn't anyone ever tell you it wasn't nice to listen in on other people's conversations?" He couldn't get much heat in his voice…he kind of doubted Radu could _avoid_ hearing everything that was happening on this tiny ship.

"I heard my name…it's kind of automatic. But she is right. About the argument, I mean."

"I know. I wasn't…I didn't mean you, you know? You're about the last person who'd leave someone in trouble."

"I…" He ducked his head. "I'm sorry about the controller comment. Wasn't any reason for it, I was just mad."

Harlan shrugged. "Guess we're both pretty on edge. Truce?"

"Yeah."

He offered a hand, and Harlan reached out, bracing himself for the bone-crunching grip he'd felt the last time the two of them shook hands. And was surprised that Radu's grip was barely any tighter than his own. Radu looked…suspiciously amused. "You did that on purpose before, didn't you? Crunched my hand back on the Christa after that stupid family tree assignment?"

The Andromedan ducked his head but didn't manage to hide a grin. "I might have been still a little annoyed. Besides, if _you_ could hear the bones in your hand grinding, you had to know I could."

"I couldn't hear them, I just felt them," Harlan admitted. "It was a pretty good trick. And if you ever do it again I'll get a gizbot to squeak continuously every night for the next six years."

Radu didn't seem too concerned with the threat. "Suzee says they're on encryption pattern 11b75."

"All right, let's see what the next least-common one is. Better grab a chair or something." Radu nodded, pulling over a stool from one of the other consoles, and the next hour and a half was spent in near silence as they began to scan through frequencies. It went a little quicker with Radu there—he didn't always have to wait for the translation program to know whether it was anything useful or not. "Suzee's right, you know…there's just too much information here to go through."

Radu blinked. "What?"

"Too much information…you know, too many messages being sent? You feeling okay?"

"I…yeah, sorry, I've just been concentrating so long on filtering static it took a minute to process what you said." He grinned slightly. "I think we were talking more when we were fighting."

"Yeah, it is kind of weird to hear a voice without crackling in the back—wait. Say that again."

"I was concentrating more on filtering static?"

"No, no, the part about fighting."

"We were talking more when we were fighting?"

"That's it! We're thinking about this wrong…we're assuming the military channels will be the least commonly used since not too many people have them, but they're fighting now—they're in a war!"

Radu nodded. "So they have to be talking to each other more…we need to look at the most commonly used encryptions?"

Harlan shook his head. "Maybe not the most commonly used…those are probably still civilian channels…but we should be starting in the middle of the range at least."

"I'll tell the commander and Suzee."

"Wait." If he was wrong, the engineer would never let him live it down. "Let's do some quick checks ourselves first, just to see if we can find anything." Radu didn't look thrilled with the idea, but he'd go along with Harlan's idea for at least a little bit, of that the human was sure. "Come on, we'll just try a couple. If it doesn't work, we'll ask the commander and see if he thinks we should keep working this way. Worst case we lose maybe an hour."

"All right."


	23. Getting Home

**What May Come**

_Please see chapter 1 for author's notes. Chapter 24 should be going up at some point in the next day or two…it was sent for beta'ing with the past three just posted but has a few issues with pronoun use during fight scenes and needs a little more revision._

Chapter 23: Getting Home

Radu looked at the console in front of him, and then snapped around to stare at the human beside him. "This is it!"

"What? What are they talking about?"

Before Radu could answer, the translation program kicked in and the hisses and snarls of the Spung language became recognizable Standard. "—eats: Thirteen enemy ships captured and towed to Alhirk, bringing the total to 117. Fifty-seven new prisoners have been brought in for interrogation from these ships, promising considerable intelligence to bring this war to a swift close. We have also recaptured the nexus point at Harshala and are moving towards Kents. Message from battle group seven led by Warlord Vocec repeats: Thirteen enemy ships captured and…."

"All right, we've got a military channel!" Harlan moved to the intercom on the wall. "Commander, we've got something. Encryption code 57c02."

"What? That isn't one we're even close to checking," Suzee said.

"I figured—well, Radu said something about talking more when we were fighting, and it made sense that they'd be a lot of ships using military encryption during a war, so we decided to check a couple of the more commonly used frequencies. Took a couple tries, but we've got a channel that's passing messages from a battle group—they're talking about capturing ships."

"All right, you two keep listening on that frequency; see if you can find out any more information. If nothing useful comes in, work towards more common encryptions and see if you can find any more likely candidates—if you do, make sure to mark them. Suzee and I will work from there towards less likely encryptions and see if we can pull any more."

"All right, Commander. Radu, are they saying anything else?"

Radu had been splitting his attention between the comm and Harlan's conversation with the commander and shook his head. "The same message just keeps repeating. Want to mark it and try the next encryption?"

"Let's give it a try."

Once they'd gotten one positive result, it was easier to keep working, and before the commander called a halt in the proceedings two hours later they'd identified six other likely possibilities besides the first. The four of them met back on command, where Goddard and Suzee had five more channels worth examining. "Did you hear anything about the Christa?" Radu had to ask.

"Nothing specific, but we did hear about other captured ships. It's almost like too much of a good thing, really," Suzee answered. "All the encryption codes we found around that first one were military…we pulled out the most likely, but I'm afraid we're going to miss something if we keep switching between them."

"Same here," Harlan agreed. "Hey, we heard something in the first message about where some captured ships were taken—Alhirk. Sound familiar?"

Goddard nodded. "We heard that name too. If they're taking all the captured ships to the same location, it makes sense they would take the Christa there too. After all, it will have security, guards in place…"

"So we just have to find this Alhirk?"

Radu glanced over at Harlan. "Ships aren't small…it shouldn't be too hard to find a bunch of them penned up in one place."

"Let's get to it, then, people. The main reason I interrupted the search now is that a security ship has passed us twice in the past half an hour. No one has tried to make contact yet, and I'd like to be elsewhere before they do."

Radu moved to the navigation console, bringing up starcharts of their immediate area. He didn't see anything that looked immediately like a storage area for ships, and no planets bore that name, but… "Here. It's a military output about two hours away from here. There's not much around it…it's on the eleventh planet."

"Not much of a planet," Harlan commented as Radu transferred the image to the main screen.

"If there's nothing there, it's a good reason for civilians to stay out of the area," Goddard pointed out. "We just have to find a way to get ourselves close enough to find the Christa."

"If there are a bunch of ships there, it shouldn't be too hard to hide ourselves among them," Suzee pointed out.

Radu shook his head. "We have to get past whatever perimeter they have set up first." And that wouldn't be easy…judging by the scans they had of the area, there wasn't much that could be used as cover.

"They can't have ships posted around the entire perimeter," Goddard said firmly. "We'll try and follow other traffic in—maybe attach ourselves to one of the groups bringing in captured ships—but if that doesn't work we'll stay as far away as possible while maintaining sensor contact and after whatever patrol-ships they have working are passed we'll slip in. I suspect they're concentrating more on keeping ships from leaving than preventing others from joining them. Mr. Radu, lay in a course. Mr. Band…"

"On it, Commander."

As soon as he had the course laid in, Radu felt the ship begin to move. It almost didn't feel real…that after the hectic days of searching they were actually going to see the Christa again. Find the rest of the crew. At least he hoped so…they were all assuming the others had been left onboard. If that wasn't true, he wasn't sure what they'd do. But there was no point in bringing up trouble….it seemed to find them well enough on its own. He glanced up at the pilot and grinned. It had been a little bit of a surprise that the other boy hadn't realized what he'd done back on the Christa—he wasn't usually very good at hiding when he was joking. He still _had_ been a little angry back then though. This argument had just been stupid. Anyway, at least they were back on speaking terms—the last couple hours had passed a lot more pleasantly than the last couple days. The next hour passed faster than any of the rest, and Radu felt his jaw drop as an image came up on the main screen. They hadn't expected to see anything until they were at least past the tenth planet. "How long has this war been going on?" The others on the command post were silent, staring out at an expanse of ships none of them had expected. There was no way they were all from some border skirmish—there had to be hundreds of different types of ships out there. Ships from hundreds of different races, even, judging by the configurations. Some of them were obviously damaged beyond repair; others looked as though they were ready to head for the front lines. "How are we ever going to find her?"

"At least it's probably a safe assumption that she's in there somewhere," Goddard said after a moment. "Lets concentrate on getting into the field and then we'll start a more systematic search. Any sign of patrols?"

"Nothing yet," Suzee reported after a moment. "Although…there might not be. Look at those ships on the perimeter. They're in good shape, and at least a couple still have power. All the Spung would have to do is post a couple guards on each, and if any unauthorized this approached…"

"Bang," Harlan completed. "Do any of them have weapons powered up?"

"I don't think so, but I've never seen anything like some of them. I don't even know if I'd recognize a weapon, never mind be able to tell which of the active power relays is going to it."

"Well…if we've never seen them before, maybe the Spung don't know how to work them either?" Radu offered. It wasn't likely, and he knew it.

Goddard shook his head. "If they've had them for any amount of time, I think we can safely say they've figured out how all the systems work. All right, we wait for a convoy going in—if there are guards on those ships, they'll need food and leave time, and there are probably inspections and the like. Suzee, I don't want to get any closer, but can you boost the scanners enough to identify which ships have any power at all. We'll circle at this range."

"Commander, there's no way we're going to be able to circle this thing today…I'm not even sure we could circle it this week!" Harlan protested. "This may have started on the eleventh planet, but it's headed out of the sector!"

"Stay to the Spung side—I'd rather not wind up in the middle of a firefight because we're in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"In the wrong ship."

He nodded at Suzee. "That too."

"Radu, pull up starcharts. Plot a course out of here as best you can. Our best bet is a hyperjump, so start plotting out coordinates now so we won't waste time. Get us out of Spung space."

"Even if it takes us into one of the enemy sectors?"

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend…or at least less likely to come at us shooting. I'll work with the scanners at the level we have now and try and locate the Christa."

None of them spoke as Harlan began to bring the ship around—even if the commander was the only one 'officially' scanning for their ship, even was having a hard time focusing on what she was supposed to be doing. All eyes kept straying to the scene on the main screen, hoping for a glimpse of their bird-like ship.

"Harlan, watch where you're going. Radu, we need that escape route. Suzee, work on a safe entrance if we can't sneak in behind a convoy. I know it's hard being this close, but we can't afford to get sloppy now. Do your jobs, and we'll find them. Clear?"

Harlan nodded. "Clear."

"Yes, Commander."

"Yes, sir." Radu forced himself to concentrate on the numbers in front of him, trying to find the fastest route out of Spung territory. Really, the only way to go was out through Kalrabi space, and hope the commander was right about them not immediately opening fire. They could cut back across the empire in a longer hyperjump, but the Spung would know where they were going and might be able to follow. They couldn't very well follow the Christa to the Kalrabi without getting themselves killed. So…. He brought up what information he had on the sectors the Spung didn't control and did his best to plot a course through them. A lot depended on the reactions of the natives, but….

"There she is!"

The commander's voice snapped him back to the present, and he stared at the main screen. "I don't see it."

"Me either," Harlan agreed, also squinting at the image. "They're so far away…"

"I see it too!" Suzee said. "Look, there, behind the big green one!"

"Big green…? Hey, you're right! I can't tell from here, but at least she isn't in pieces!"

Radu shook his head, trying to figure out what the three of them were staring at. The ships were so small on the screen…they couldn't afford to come within Spung scanner range, but he wished he could see something. He moved up behind Harlan's shoulder, trying to follow the other boy's line of sight. Harlan moved slightly, giving him a clear view. And…that was a wing. And the nose. "Commander? Is she really okay?"

"I'm not seeing any damage from here. We won't know for sure until we can get onboard and run diagnostics, but I think we might have a good shot of escaping. Suzee, any luck on boosting the scanners?"

"Sorry, Commander, you've got everything available. And there are two ships in the area besides the Christa that still have power, so we definitely shouldn't try getting closer."

"Right. Harlan, keep circling. Suzee…forget waiting for a convoy. Find us somewhere where we can sneak in as soon as possible. If the Christa still has power, the others are probably still onboard."

So the commander had been afraid the Spung had taken the rest of the crew also, Radu thought. He supposed it was still a possibility, and if they had…well, at least they'd have their own ship back. And it could hyperjump, unlike the little scout. "I can use its position to start plotting jump coordinates," Radu offered.

"Excellent."

Harlan continued to pilot the scout around the field…there wasn't much he was actually doing, but Radu was relieved that the human was focusing on something beyond pacing and insane plans for rescues. He knew what the human could be like when he didn't have a target. While earlier time seemed to fly by, now it was dragging…he could swear the chronometer had slowed. The Christa was right there, maybe—hopefully—with the others still onboard, and they couldn't do anything more than look at her. "Could we maybe...could we contact them?"

Suzee looked up, glancing over at the communications console. "We could definitely send a signal…"

"That could be easily intercepted or traced," Goddard finished. "I'm sorry, but until we're onboard, we won't be able to find out any more information about the others."

That drew three sighs with varying levels of discontent, and from the look on his face he agreed with them, but getting captured now that they were so close…well, that wouldn't help anyone. Radu tried to go back to focusing on jump coordinates, but it was harder…he'd gotten most of what he needed worked out before they'd seen the ship, now all there was to do was plug in the exact location for the start of the jump. The computer could do that—the computer did do that, fortunately, since he wasn't sure he wanted to trust his own senses right this second.

"Commander, I think I see something!"

He turned towards the engineer. "What is it?"

"Look…there are two ships active, there and…there. I'm not sure what that one is, but that's an old Spung destroyer. It's got a sensor range that covers through here…" she gestured at the screen. "Like I said, I don't really know what the other one is, but judging by the layout of the sensors—"

"Are you sure they're even sensors?" Harlan interrupted.

"Well, no one in their right mind builds laser cannons in that configuration—the beams would intersect and they'd lose most of their effectiveness. There's nothing there that they could actually shoot a missile from, unless they're using missiles the size of a person's fist. So, logically, it stands to reason that that's where their active sensors would be located. The crossover wouldn't be an issue for a radar sweep. Anyway, if these are its sensors, the best coverage it would have would be through here." Another gesture at the screen. "Based on those two patterns, there is a corridor through here," all three of the others leaned towards the screen, trying to see whatever she was gesturing at in the darkness of space. "If we're careful, we should be able to fly the scout right down that corridor without them noticing."

"Are you certain?"

"Certain, no—for all I know the thing is telepathic and will sense our approach, and those two arrays are actually overgrown jelly dispensers. But it's the best bet I've seen so far, and I just confirmed that there are no other active ships hiding behind those two."

Goddard nodded. "Well, I've never heard of a telepathic ship, and I think we can rule out the jelly dispensers. Mr. Radu, Mr. Band, get us in there. On the silent engines. Suzee, you and I will be keeping an eye on the sensors—I want to know if they have any monitoring systems inside that mess. Radu, I assume you can get us back to the Christa once we're inside?"

"Of course, Commander." Even Harlan could probably handle that, and he managed to get lost on space stations! Three heartbeats besides his own picked up speed as Harlan began to move the little ship into the space Suzee had designated the 'safe' corridor between the two monitors, but no shots were fired. Four sighs of relief sounded as they passed both ships, and Radu passed the Christa's coordinates to Harlan's console.

"You think she'll just open the doors like she did for Elmira?" Harlan asked.

"I hope so, Mr. Band. Because if she doesn't, I'm not sure how to go about getting in."

"There she is," Radu whispered.

"Wha—Christa!" Harlan exclaimed, seeing what Radu had. "And the docking bay is already open."

"Bring her in, Mr. Band."


	24. Battle for Command

**What May Come**

_Please see chapter 1 for author's notes._

_Warning: This chapter contains some violence (in case the title didn't give that away)._

Chapter 24: Battle for Command

Davenport had finally pulled her right arm free and was using a sliver of metal she'd picked away from the first handcuff to work on the second. Bova had been aiming blasts at his own at random intervals—whenever he managed to build up his strength that far, she suspected—but he'd only been able to loosen one. Rosie had been glaring at alternating wrists—her own, probably fortunately, considering the fierceness of the unusual expression on her face—for the past two hours. Whether she'd actually accomplished anything was hard to say. She let herself fall forward as the latch on the left cuff finally release, and then stepped towards the Uranusian. "Mr. Bova, if you would keep an eye on the door?"

He nodded. "Um…just a minute. I think they might be…charged." He took a deep breath, and a moment later drew the electricity he'd blasted into the cuffs out. "Okay."

"I think I've got mine," Rosie said as Davenport moved towards the last crewmember. "I've been trying to concentrate heat blasts…there!" A ring of heat appeared, and the metal on her right wrist melted away. She wasted no time pulling off her glove on that hand and melting away the second cuff. On her first step away from the wall, she staggered. "S-sorry, I'm just a little dizzy."

"It's all right. We haven't had much to eat in the past few days"—there hadn't been much in the rations the Spung had given that they could stomach—"and nothing since they locked us in here. We're lucky we've only been without water for a short amount of time." Well, short in comparison with the total amount of time they'd been on the Christa, but almost two days without water was nothing to joke about. Fortunately the emergency supplies in the engine room had liquid pouches…technically for cleaning burns, but this wasn't the time to be picky. She quickly pulled out several packets and passed them around, making a mental note to restock the kit and add ration bars.

Rosie looked up as soon as she finished the first pouch. "So what now? We retake command?"

"Barricade this engine room and try and get some control from here," Miss Davenport corrected. "As we planned to do originally." Although in this state, she wasn't too sure any of them were thinking clearly. Biology had never been her strongest subject—not that she had been bad at it, of course, it just hadn't attracted her as much as the other sciences—but she was well aware of the effects of food deprivation. She turned towards the door, nearly running into it when the panels didn't slide apart. "First we need to get this open."

"What?" Rosie asked.

"You just said that we should barricade ourselves in," Bova agreed. "I don't think anything we can do will hold up against the Spung anyway, but a closed door would be marginally more effective."

"Open first," Davenport said firmly. "I'm going to the mess to get more supplies. You two will work on defenses for the room and activating whatever systems you can while I am gone."

"Shouldn't one of us go with you?" Rosie protested. "To watch your back?"

"Because that worked so well before."

"That will be enough, Mr. Bova," Davenport snapped in response to the muttered comment. While it was true that the three of them together hadn't been able to do much against the Spung party they had come across earlier, there was no point in dwelling on it. "Under no circumstances do I want the two of you to follow me."

"You still can't get out," Bova pointed out.

"Well when I do, I don't want you two to follow. Understood?"

"Yes, Miss Davenport," came twin replies.

"All right. Now, I think we can assume this was locked in the same way they had us locked in before. I realize," she continued before Bova could interrupt, "that we never found a way to unlock that door, but we now have an entire engine room at our disposal and I imagine we will be able to figure something out. Ideas for what is actually keeping the door shut?"

"The gizbot had to cut through something," Rosie pointed out. "So some kind of clamp, probably."

"Excellent."

"I don't think they'd bother carrying a bunch of physical keys with them, so probably something electronic to release it," Bova said after a moment.

"Could you short it?"

"That didn't work before…it probably needs some sort of coded sequence. Then they could carry a single generator with them and it would be able to lock and unlock whatever they have clamps on with a different code for each."

Rosie frowned for a moment. "I thought…." She moved closer to the door, scanning the floor.

"Miss Ianni?"

"She dropped something. The Spung girl who was in right after we first got locked in. And I think it was what she used to open the door. I didn't realize it until you mentioned the electronic lock, but…ah, here it is!" She held out a strange round device with a handful of buttons around the rim. "Do you think this could be the key?"

"Maybe," Bova said dubiously, passing it over to Miss Davenport. "Why do you think this is what she used to make it open?"

"She waved it right before the door opened and then put it in a pouch…her tail banged the door on her way through, and it fell out and rolled back into the room."

"Waved it? I suppose…" Miss Davenport passed the device in front of the door, and it obligingly popped open. "Indeed. I will be back as soon as possible. Take this."

"Shouldn't you take it so you can get back in?" Rosie objected.

"If anything happens to me, I don't want you trapped her. I will knock three times when I return as a signal to open the door. If I speak to you, it will be because the Spung have captured me…they'll be able to open the door themselves so get into as defensible a position as possible and do your best to protect yourselves." Both nodded solemnly, and she passed the device to Bova and stepped through just before the door shut. She made it partially to the galley, moving as quietly and as quickly as possible while avoiding the jumptubes for fear the Spung had tracking devices on them, before the shaking caught up with her. It had been one thing to maintain a strong front in the presence of the students—there was no one else to lead them if she panicked—but she was a teacher, an _educator_, not a commando! And here she was lurking around their own ship while who-knows how many Spung controlled the corridors and command, and at some point they would come for Rosie and Bova and herself to control in hopes of finding out how the Christa worked…she shook off her terror for a moment as she considered that. They woman who'd spoken to them had mentioned something about securing a sector first, but the ship hadn't shuddered or lost power at any point—sure signs of a battle. So why hadn't the Spung come to interrogate them? She took a deep breath and forced the panic back down. No point in worrying about that now. One more turn and she would be in the ga—"Ahh!"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Goddard blinked again. "Miss Davenport? Theresa?" Great, the first member of his crew that he encounters once back onboard he promptly scares into unconsciousness.

"Commander? What was that?"

"Miss Davenport. Um…in here." He pulled the woman into the galley, followed by the engineer. "I think I startled her." Suzee rolled her eyes at that, but he ignored her. The two of them were attempting to find and reactivate Thelma, locate the rest of their crew, and take control of the engine room, while Harlan and Radu took the Command Post. He hadn't wanted to send the two of them off alone, honestly, but staying together was too dangerous—if the Spung captured the group, there was no one left to mount a rescue. And Suzee needed backup as well. Both boys were armed, and it was possible that the Spung weren't based out of command since they couldn't control the ship. Possible. Right. "Get some water; see if you can revive her. Hopefully she can tell us where Rosie and Bova and Thelma are."

Suzee did as he asked. "She looks all right."

"Apparently they haven't started on her interrogation yet. I wonder what she was doing roaming the halls."

"Hmm?" Miss Davenport sat up, rubbing at her eyes. "Wh—Commander? Suzee? You're okay! Where are Harlan and Radu? How did you find each other?"

"It's a long story," Goddard said, not willing to waste time explaining. "Harlan and Radu are on their way to the Command Post. Where are Bova, Rosie, and Thelma?"

"Bova and Rosie are in the engine room—the old one. Rosie tricked the Andromedan boy into taking us there. I need to get them food, and more water—we haven't eaten in a couple days. We haven't seen Thelma since the day the captured us."

Goddard nodded. "Suzee, help her. I'm going to head for Command, try and meet up with Bova and Rosie. I want you to help get the engines ready for jump—don't power up until we signal you—and then try and find Thelma. She should be able to locate any Spung onboard the ship."

"Are you sure?" Suzee asked. "You'll be alone…"

"I know their original plan, and they won't have made it all the way to the Command Post yet. Don't worry about me, just get the ship ready to go." And he wanted to ward Harlan and Radu that there was at least one Ashrach loyal to the Spung onboard. Suzee nodded reluctantly, helping Miss Davenport to her feet. The older woman was still glancing between the two of them, apparently in shock. "Wait a few moments after I am gone. And good luck."

"You too."

He stepped out of the galley carefully, staying to the sides of the corridors. It had been a long time since he'd done something like this…not counting taking over the Spung scout, he hadn't done any real infiltration since that mess with Reaver. At least he had the advantage of knowing the ship. Harlan and Radu's original plan had been to spend some time in one of the rooms close to Command so the Andromedan could figure out how many people they would be facing and if there were any energy weapons with them. He'd thought that if he was close enough, he'd be able to hear their power packs. Goddard just had to determine which room they were hiding in…he couldn't exactly call out and give them all away to the Spung. Hearing the click of scales on the floor, indicating an approaching Spung, he ducked into an adjoining corridor and flattened himself against the wall, drawing his weapon. It hadn't been in the plans, but if he had a chance to take out one of the Spung in an ambush, he was going to take it. He listened harder, trying to determine if there was more than one. He could handle two as long as he had the element of surprise, but he didn't want them to have time to warn anyone else. It sounded like a single figure so…

"_Sris_—"

Whatever they Spung man's cry of alarm actually meant, he didn't have time to finish it—or touch the communicator on his belt—before a blast from Goddard's sidearm dropped him to the ground. "Projectile. Damn." If the gun over the man's shoulder was any indication, Harlan and Radu wouldn't be able to tell what weapons they'd be facing or how many…projectile weapons didn't have power packs like energy weapons did. Now it was doubly important that he find them before they attacked. A quick glance around the room revealed nothing that he could conveniently bind the Spung man with, and for a moment he debated turning up the setting on his weapon. The last thing he needed was a Spung who was supposed to be out of the battle sneaking up behind him. But shooting an enemy who was unarmed went against everything he believed in, and after taking all of his belongings that even vaguely resembled a weapon or communications device he settled on tying the man up with strips he tore out of its uniform. It took some time—the material was tough—but when he finished he was able to say with some certainty that there was one Spung who wouldn't be an issue for a good long time. Unfortunately, as he was stepping into the corridor he heard shouts from Command. "Damn."

"Radu, look out!"

Apparently there had been some kind of meeting on the Command Post that his students had decided to interrupt—when he burst into the room the Andromedan was crouching behind the navigation console and barely turned in time to pick off the Spung coming up on his side. Harlan had gone the other way and was huddled behind tactical—he was the one who'd called the warning. They had the advantage of positions, but the Spung had them seriously outnumbered. There were at least two huddled in front of helm, three others—a female and two males—behind some sort of energy barrier off to the right, and two more males behind a similar one on the left. Suddenly the projectile weapons made sense…if they expected their enemies to have similar protections there was no point in them carrying energy weapons. Realizing that he was exposed, Goddard dove behind the communications console. Unwilling to damage the helm more than absolutely necessary, he fired a few shots at the group on the right…unsurprisingly it was absorbed easily by the shield. The Spung, unfortunately, didn't seem to share his concern about the state of the ship, and as he ducked back behind the console a barrage of weapons struck the front. He upped the power setting on his weapon to the kill level and tried a second time, this time with the support of Radu and Harlan who had apparently changed the setting on their weapons as well. The shield shuddered and for a moment, but the return fire forced all three back down.

"Bring it all the way to 'crispy critter'," Harlan yelled.

The Spung were apparently arguing over their own tactics—both groups behind energy shields were snarling at the ones behind the center console. Whoever was there wasn't as loud as the others, and since they had yet to take a shot, Goddard was willing to temporarily ignore them. "Go left!" he called to his crew, and almost as one they rose again and blasted. This time the shield shivered for a longer span of time and then blinked, and at least one of the beams—it was had to tell whose, although he hoped it was his own and his students were spared killing—struck one of the Spung in the chest, and he fell. Unfortunately, they waited almost too long to get back down, and he felt a searing heat along the side of his head.

"Commander!"

"Commander Goddard, are you all right?"

'All right' was definitely not the term he would have used, but there was no point in worrying them. There were five or six Spung still in the room who'd be quite happy to take them all apart. "I'll be fine, keep your eyes on them."

"Left again?"

"Now!" Unfortunately, the Spung seemed to be ready for them, and Goddard had to duck back down before getting a shot off. Harlan and Radu both hit the shield, but they had to break off before they got through. The Spung went back to hissing, and he turned to Radu. "What are they talking about?"

"They're annoyed at someone behind the center console for not shooting, but he says they man with him is bleeding and if he lets go the guy will die…I'm getting only heartbeat though, so it's probably a lost cause."

"Well, don't tell them that!" Harlan yelled over. "I'm okay with him not shooting!"

"Um, Commander, I think we better do something quick…one of them just said something about backup…."

"Shoot…all right, on three, take out the last one on the left. Try and get in a position to go around the console if you can, it will take them a few seconds to adjust their fire." This time, the few seconds was enough, and the last Spung behind the barrier on that side fell.

"Yes!"

Goddard's reprimand, aimed at Harlan, was drowned out by the retaliation of the three Spung behind the barrier on the right. He blinked, trying to clear the sweat from his eyes, and realized suddenly that it was blood. Apparently he had been hit rather than scorched in the wake of the shot that passed by him as he'd believed. And the Spung had reinforcements on the way. Time to end this. "Right—now!"

The trick of going around the consoles a second time didn't work, as the Spung proved when one opened fire on each member of the Christa's crew. Radu's cry of pain indicated he hadn't been fast enough this time. "Radu? Are you all right?" Harlan's voice rose. "Radu?"

There was a groan, and then the sound of someone incoming on the jumptubes drew everyone's attention. Goddard realized how exposed Radu was—the console was shielding the Andromedan from the three behind the force shield easily enough, but while he and Harlan had been able to maneuver for cover not only from those behind the force shield but also the jumptubes, Radu was still exposed. He must have been hit pretty badly. Goddard opened fire immediately at the tall Spung as soon as he landed, but before the beam could strike a blond figure was between it and him.

"Dahak!"

The howl had come from the newly arrived Spung, but before he could redirect fire—Harlan had taken advantage of the distraction to try again at the three behind the force shield—the other door to the Command Post slid open and a second blond came flying into the room. It was rather like getting hit by a small shuttlecraft, he thought, as the figure shoved past him and ground to a halt in front of the newly-arrived Spung. Goddard noted absently that Harlan had stopped firing—although somehow he'd managed to take down two of the three figures who'd stood behind the second shield. The third still held her weapon loosely, but most of her attention was focused on the figure now crumpled on the floor…an Ashrach, apparently, maybe the one who'd locked up the others. Whoever that Spung man was, he was pretty important if he had _two_ Ashrach guarding him….Goddard wrapped his fingers around the handle of his weapon and began to pick himself slowly up from where he'd been tossed.

"Whoa! You best not even be _thinking_ about pointing that thing at my brother!" a voice snapped from behind him.

"Aslinn?" Harlan rose from his position behind the console. "Jacie?"


	25. Whose Side Are You On?

**What May Come**

_Please see chapter 1 for author's notes._

_I am aware of the fact that not all of the Spung in this chapter speak grammatically correct English. I doubt the Spung military gave lessons in the language of the enemy._

Chapter 25: Who's Side Are You On?

A moment ago the universe had made sense, Harlan noted, staring at the scene in front of him. Granted, it had been scary sense, considering his best friend had just been shot, the Commander was bleeding, and they were all being shot at, but at least he knew how things had come to be. Now…an Ashrach lay on the floor, dropped by the Commander's weapon as he'd blocked the shot at the tall Spung. Said Spung was being held back by Jacie, who had one hand clamped over his holster and was refusing to let him draw the weapon. Harlan couldn't understand what the Ashrach was saying, and Radu wasn't in any shape to translate, but it didn't sound particularly threatening. Somehow two of the three who'd been shooting at them lay dead—he hadn't seen it happen; he'd been looking at the Commander. And now the remaining one—the female—had loosened her grip on her weapon and was staring at the dead boy.

"Taver, enough!" Aslinn's voice made Jacie and the tall Spung turn towards him. "What happened?"

"He shot Dak! And the blast was set high," the man responded. "Dak wouldn't have bothered to block a knockout!"

The woman hissed something, and her force shield dissipated as she tapped her waist. She knelt down by the boy, then jerked back upright hissing fiercely. When no one responded immediately, she shook her head. "Where fixing?"

"What?" Harlan blurted.

"Where I fix him!"

"No one's going anywhere," Goddard said firmly. "I don't know who you are or what you want, but—"

At that, the tall Spung caught Jacie around the waist and lifted him out of the way, moving towards the commander with a snarl. "Taver, no!" Aslinn interrupted, moving to block his path. "Help your brother! Commander, we'll explain later, but if Dak is still alive after catching that shot, we need to move now. Jacie, grab Radu, he doesn't look so good either. Now where is medical?"

Harlan looked at the Commander, who looked as confused as he felt, but the older man still managed to make a snap decision. "Fine, we'll take you, but your weapons stay here."

This time both Spung hissed in annoyance, but the female dropped hers on the floor and tugged the one out of the other Spung's holster—he'd lifted the Ashrach boy and couldn't get to it himself. "Just to hurry!"

Goddard led the way, indicating for Harlan to bring up the rear. The teenager had moved to assist Radu at first, but Jacie had waved him off. Radu was bleeding pretty heavily from the open side anyway…Harlan couldn't really get in there to help anyway. "Should we get Rosie?" he asked.

"After we get them there," Commander Goddard said. "I don't want to risk using the intercom. Do any of you have medical training?"

"Malee does," Aslinn said with a nod to the Spung girl. "More so than the rest of us, anyway. Tav, is he…"

"Still breathes, barely…his face is burned..." He glanced back at Harlan. "Watch rear, we are not the only Spung on board."

Something about his face sparked Harlan's memory… "Hey, I know you! You're the one who intercepted our transmission! Why are you helping us?"

"Intercepted what transmission? You is the ones who hanged up on…" There was a pained moan, and his attention immediately focused on the figure in his arms. "Dak? Dahak?" He began to hiss quietly.

"They're in the resistance?" Radu asked. "You gave us their contact codes on purpose?"

"Of course…the four of them are four of our best. They were our first assignment for evacuation…when we found out they were with a newly captured ship of unknown design we tried to contact you, but you must have been on the Centauri ship by then." Aslinn shrugged.

"The Rockhopper made it this far that fast?"

"Maybe it could have once upon a time, but not with as much damage as we took. Caught a ride on with a transport captain we know—he's waiting beyond the perimiter to evac us all—and then shuttled in maybe twenty minutes ago. Good timing, I suppose."

"Here's medical," Goddard announced.

The female—Malee—said something to the taller Spung, who immediately put the Ashrach boy down on one of the beds. "She wants a…something scanner," Aslinn said a moment later.

"Diagnostic scanner," Jacie put in. "And sedatives…I don't know what you'd be calling them, or if you even have the ones she wants."

"The others are in the old engine room. I'll go down and get them—get Rosie, anyway," Goddard announced.

"Alone? Commander, are you sure that's such a good idea?" The man had what looked like a nasty gash along the top of his skull…it didn't seem to be bothering him that much, but it was still bleeding.

"I want you here to watch them," Goddard said firmly, pulling a bandage out of one of the cabinets and passing it to the teenagers. "Harlan, help him bind the wound. Radu, try not to move until Rosie and I get back here."

"I'll go with you," Aslinn offered.

That drew an immediate and disturbed glance from Jacie, and the human shook his head. "Bad plan, brother, you and Taver are the only two here fluent in both Spung and Standard, and he's…"

Since Taver was apparently the taller Spung, still staring at the burned figure on the medical pallet, Jacie was the obviously the only one actually fit to do any translating. "Be careful."

"Take." Malee passed over the odd object that had generated the force shield absently, concentrating on the various medications that lined the walls.

"She wants to put a needle and tube in his arm," Jacie reported.

"An IV? I don't know where Rosie keeps that stuff," Harlan admitted.

"Lower cabinet." Radu was sitting at the head of one of the other beds, still looking unsteady. "Not sure if there are needles."

Goddard tied off a quick bandage around his temple, preparing to open the door. Aslinn fell in at his shoulder. "Be careful. We'll be back with help as soon as possible."

Harlan maneuvered to put himself next to Radu, still gripping his weapon. He wasn't quite sure how to go about helping Radu if he was still supposed to be keeping their…prisoners wasn't the right word…well, whatever they were, he was supposed to be keeping an eye on them. They didn't exactly look threatening though. Jacie was tugging insistently—although apparently not very hard—at Taver's arm; he wanted the man to step back and let the woman work and the man wasn't thrilled with the idea of leaving the Ashrach's—Dak's?—side. The woman had a needle in one hand and was trying to maneuver the boy's arm into a position that would allow her to insert it. He set the gun down on the edge of the bunk. "Radu?"

"I'm all right…it's just a nasty gash."

"Let's wrap it anyway," Harlan insisted. "Hold that end in place." He had no idea how tight he should make the bandage—he hadn't been paying much attention in class the day they covered first aid—and he didn't think Radu would know either. After all, he'd been Harlan's opponent in virtual Tri-D chess at the time. "Tell me if it hurts."

Radu shook his head. "It hurts now."

"Well…tell me if it gets worse."

The Spung woman hissed something, the only understandable portion of which was Jacie's name, and he gave up tugging on Taver's arm to come stand by Harlan. "Let me see." A couple careful pulls on the bandage Harlan had tied off and he nodded. "That looks fine. Just…stay still."

"Was planning on it," Radu replied after a moment.

"You want me to find some…whatever the Andromedan equivalent of aspirin is?" Harlan asked, frowning at the orange-pinkish blood that was slowly seeping through the bandage.

"What's that?"

"Painkiller."

Radu looked dubious, probably at Harlan's ability to safely select medication. "I think we better wait till Rosie gets here."

"Yeah, okay." Harlan didn't like the look on Radu's face. They'd all been staring at the burned boy—Jacie and the two Spung in the room were still focused on him—but Radu was even paler than normal, and if the white knuckles were any indication of his grip, the edges of the bunk were never going to be the same again. "I hope the commander hurries."

"Me too."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Rosie Ianni had her gloves off and was soldering wires into place as fast as she safely could. It was bad enough that the engine room had been completely shut down when the secondary engines had been discovered, but the fact that Suzee had never truly worked on these engines except as a voice in Catalina's head was making the task of rerouting power to bring up the consoles without alerting the Spung nearly impossible. Miss Davenport was doing something with the computers…Rosie wasn't entirely sure what…while Suzee and Bova were working on another portion of the engines. Bova had managed to jump start them once at the start of their journey, they were counting on him being able to repeat the procedure again.

"Roise, how close are you to being done?"

"About halfway," she reported. "But I'm sure the rest will go much faster." After all, that's how it always worked…once you were started it was much easier to finish. And now that Suzee and Commander Goddard and Harlan and Radu were back, there was nothing to keep them from hyperjumping right out of Spung territory. "Miss Davenport, is everything all right?"

"I'm trying to track the rest of the Spung onboard the ship…the Christa is allowing me to use all of her systems for once…although that may be because I'm not attempting to alter anything..." she trailed off at sounds from the corridor.

Bova came around to the front, charging up his antennae. The food Suzee and Miss Davenport had brought had done wonders for his ability to hold a charge. "Who's there?"

"It's Commander Goddard, open the door."

Rosie broke into an even wider grin at the familiar voice, moving to disable the lock. "Just a minute!"

"Wait!" Miss Davenport ordered. "How do we know he's not a prisoner? Commander, are you alone?"

"Because if he is a prisoner with two Spung standing behind him, they aren't going to have a problem with him announcing this fact," Bova muttered.

"I've got Aslinn—one of the people that helped us find you—with me. We need Rosie; an Ashrach—Andromedan boy—is badly burned and Radu was shot in the side. It didn't look deep, but he's lost a lot of blood."

Rosie had the door open before he finished his diagnosis. "Where are they?"

"Medical. The Spung girl—she's apparently part of the Resistance—apparently has some medical knowledge, but we don't know where all the supplies we need are."

"Resistance to what?" Miss Davenport asked.

"Let's not go there now," a redheaded human, maybe a few years older than Harlan, said from the doorway. "Not everyone in the Empire like how the military runs things. But if you're the medical expert, Malee could use your help—I'm not sure how Dak took a kill-setting blast from one of our weapons and survived."

"Kill setting?" Rosie asked.

"We weren't using 'kill'," Goddard admitted. "It wasn't having any effect on their shields so we upped it to the highest setting."

"He took the blast at 'crispy critter'? Huh. Verkai will know...he's the one who gave us the things."

"We better move…how long until you can get the jump engines online?" Goddard asked Suzee.

"We haven't even got the consoles up yet…I'm not sure whether they've put blocks on the jump engines or not, and I won't know until we can do a diagnostic sweep." She gestured at the tangle of wires Rosie had been working on. "We're having to drain from nonessential systems that the Spung hopefully don't know about."

"If you've got an extra soldering gun I can help with that," Aslinn volunteered. "More use here than in medical anyway."

"Fine," Goddard agreed. "Suzee can tell you what to do. Rosie, is there anything you might need that won't be in medical?"

She shook her head, following him out the door and into the corridor. "What happened to you?"

"Got clipped…it's just a cut, nothing to worry about."

Rosie wasn't convinced—even glancing head wounds should be checked—but it wasn't the time to argue. "Is Harlan all right?"

"He took a shot in the shoulder a couple days ago, but other than that he's in the best shape of all of us." Goddard stopped at an intersection, signaling her to silence. "Do you hear that?"

She bit her lip and concentrated. It was faint, but… "I think someone's coming."

"All right, keep going. Quick and quiet, I'll take rear."

She stayed close to the walls, listening carefully before making any turns. The Christa was a large ship, there probably wouldn't be anyone else popping up in front of them, but…well, it never hurt to be careful. The sound of approaching nails seemed closer now. She turned back towards the Commander to find he'd halted at the previous intersection and drawn his weapon. "Commander?"

"Go on, I'll be there in a moment. I don't want them pinning us down in medical."

She wanted to argue, but he was the commander, and she had patients waiting. "Be careful." A moment later she was in front of medbay, and she ducked through the hatch as soon as it opened. And found herself slammed into a wall with an impossibly strong hand holding her just below her collar. "Hey!"

"Rosie? Jacie, let her go! She's our medic!"

"Oh. Sorry." She was released, and after turning found herself face-to-face with and Andromedan she didn't recognize. "Where are Aslinn and the Commander?" he asked.

"Commander Goddard…someone was behind us, he was going to stop them from getting here," she reported. "I'm sure he'll be here in a minute. Was Aslinn the human who was with him when he came to get me?"

"Yes."

"He stayed to help the others in the engine room." She rubbed the back of her neck and surveyed the rest of the inhabitants of the room. Harlan leaned against one of the bunks—he'd been the one to yell at the Ashrach to let her go. Radu sat beside him, looking pale but alert. A Spung woman had her back to them, leaning over another bunk where someone with blond hair rested—the one who was burned, probably—and another Spung stood beside her also facing the one on the bed. "Radu, are you all right?"

"I'm fine."

She'd never had the heart to tell Radu he was a bad liar, but he really was. "I'll get you some pain pills anyway. Does he need some also?" The Spung woman hissed something, turning to face Rosie, and the Mercurian girl felt a chill pass through her. "You're the one who came to see if we were still locked up!"

"You did what?" Harlan demanded.

"Stupid idiot not look where go. Danshir behind with gun…" she trailed off in a stream of hisses.

"Danshir—who is very much not resistance member—was behind me with gun, and since you were careless enough walk to right into us we did not have choice but to recapture," the tall Spung beside her.

"You were there too," Rosie said in surprise. "You told the Andromedan—Ashrach—whatever—boy to lock us up somewhere in the first place."

"His name is Dahak—everyone call him Dak," the Spung said with a nod to the figure on the bed. "I am Taver, his brother. This is my mother's sister's daughter Malee…her brother Verkai is around here somewhere also. The four of us are one of the military-based resistance units." The girl hissed something else. "Malee wants nerve numbing cream, and what we call Darghossil…I am not sure if there is name for it in Standard. Ashrach fake skin? It keeps burns clean."

"We have pseudoskin," Rosie agreed. "Although…do you mind if I look? He might be better off in the healing chambers."

"Healing chamber?" The woman gave her a sharp look. "Explain."

"They're one of the Christa's more advanced systems. We haven't done an in-depth study of them, but they speed healing and keep the person unconscious until they've reached a point where they can be safely revived." She moved to stand next to the medical bunk and couldn't hide her wince. Most of his face and the upper portion of his chest was badly burned…his eyelids were swollen shut and she hoped he'd gotten them closed before the blast was able to burn the irises. There was some sort of IV hooked up…the Spung woman must have done it, and monitoring equipment measured his heard rate and breathing. His heart was too fast—probably from pain—and the breathing was far too slow and shallow. "Healing chamber, now. Bring him over her care—"

Before she could finish speaking, the Spung man had the boy in his arms. "Show me where put him."

She activated one of the chambers without thinking, realizing belatedly that if the Spung were monitoring the power relays they'd certainly notice the spike that just went up in the medical bay. But it was too late to worry about that now, and anyway most of the Spung onboard the Christa were dead or in medical with her. "Right in here. I'll set the parameters for an Andromedan patient." The machine whirred to life as she entered the appropriate information, and the casing slid closed over his body.

"What is happening?" Taver demanded.

"It's all right. It's setting up an internal atmosphere to help aid healing…airborne cooling agents and such."

"How long does he have to be in there?"

She shook her head. "Most of the surface damage should heal within a week—seven standard days. Although, his eyes…if they were burned it's possible that they won't heal. But that's probably not the case, closing your eyes when something is going to his you is an instinctive reaction." She hated mentioning possible negative outcomes, but her patient's family needed to know the truth.

The Spung man hissed something at the boy in the bunk bed, and then turned back to Rosie. "Thank you. If…we may have to leave before full week is concluded. Can he be removed safely if only partially healed?"

"It shouldn't be a problem as long as we have a few hours' notice. It takes the sedative some time to wear off."

Both Spung nodded at that. "Best check," the woman told her with a nod to Radu.

"Oh! I'm sorry, I got distracted…"

He waved off her apology and forced himself to sit up straighter for her examination. "You had plenty of reason. And I'm not that bad, honest."

"Radu, I've seen ghosts with more color."

Rosie had heard the stories humans told each other each year at the StarAcademy at the end of the first month of classes and understood the reference, but Radu clearly didn't. "It doesn't matter," she assured him. "And you're going to be just fine…good as new, in fact, if you'd just spend an hour or two in a healing chamber."

He shook his head. "If you'll just give me the pain pills, I'll be fine. It's mostly stopped bleeding now."

The gash was a good two inches high and bit fairly deep around the left side of his abdomen…. "All right, but if you try and do anything strenuous it's just going to reopen. And if that happens, you do have to go into a healing chamber."

He nodded his agreement and took the medication she handed him without looking at it. "Thanks."

"Harlan, are you all right? The commander said you'd gotten shot in the shoulder."

"It seems to be our week for flesh wounds. I'm fine. Hey…shouldn't Commander Goddard be here by now?"

"Maybe he went back to help the others in the engine room," Jacie offered.

"Not without telling us," Harlan disagreed. "Radu…"

"I was paying attention to what was going on in here," he said with a shrug. "But I don't hear him out there now."

"He…Jacie?...is probably right," Rosie said after a minute. "After all, he's worked on the engines before, and we need them to escape."

Radu started to stand, but a hand on his chest kept him in place. "Don't even think about it, buddy. You heard Rosie, you open up that cut again and you're in the healing chambers. My arm is fine, I'll head for the engine room and make sure he's there."

Rosie was torn between wanting to stay with her patients and not wanting Harlan out there on his own, but before she could offer the Ashrach spoke. "I'll go with you…would rather stay with Aslinn anyway."

"Thought you had to stay here and translate," Harlan argued.

"Tav is 'here' enough to do that now…he might not know too many medical terms, but I really don't either so there's not much of a difference."

That would leave her and Radu—one injured and one not much of a fighter—with two military-trained Spung both of whom were uninjured, Rosie realized, trying not to feel uncomfortable with the idea. There were only two guns left in the room, and she couldn't expect Harlan to go after Commander Goddard unarmed or a complete stranger to leave his weapon with her…granted, anyone who tried to grab her was in for an unpleasant surprise, but all they'd have to do was knock her unconscious…. She cut off that train of thought abruptly. These were not normal Spung, they were members of a resistance group fighting the Empire. They were not going to hurt her or Radu. "You should both go," she said to Harlan and Radu. "It's not safe for one of you to be in the corridors alone."

"Look Verkai while look Commander," Malee said.

"He should be here now," Taver said with a frown. "He would have gotten 'under attack' warning the same time I got. Go careful."

"We will."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Harlan moved down the corridor as quietly as he could, Jacie in step behind him. He'd seen the Ashrach in action and knew he was perfectly competent as backup, but…Harlan would have preferred if Radu was there. They were used to each other. And the idea that an Andromedan, at least an unfamiliar one, was watching his back was still a little creepy. "You hear anything?"

"No, but if they're more than a few corridors away I might not. How long does it take to get to this—"

He broke off suddenly, grabbing Harlan's shoulder and yanking them both into one of the side rooms…apparently an unused bunk room. "What?" Harlan demanded, tugging himself free.

"Someone's coming this way…two someones."

"Commander Goddard and Ver—whoever is missing from your resistance cell?"

"Both Spung."

"And there are no other Spung here on your side?"

"Not that I know of…Taver would have mentioned if he knew of anyone else being here. Is there some kind of viewing window, or…?"

"Screen on, hallway," Harlan ordered, and the colors in the wall swirled and resolved into a picture. "I don't see anyone."

"They're coming."

"How many Spung are there onboard, anyway?"

"According to what information Aslinn and I got coming in, aside from our three and Dak—they were brought in as a special team of interrogators—there were six more in the boarding sweep. You got two on command, Malee got two as well, and Az zapped one on our way to command, so that leaves only one." Two figures appeared on the screen, standing at head of the corridor. "Th…"

Harlan turned as the Ashrach trailed off. "What is it? That would be your fourth resistance member and the last enemy Spung, right? We can take him—the bad one—out now and be ready for a hyperjump."

"Neither of them are ours…and neither of them are from a standard boarding party either. They're Jahrin…secret hunters, you'd say."

"Secret police? They're here for Taver and the others?"

"Probably."

"Do you think there are others, or just these two?"

Jacie shook his head. "They know about Taver, and they know he's got Dak…I assume they'd send more, but we don't know much about the Jahraii. Their operatives are questioned under truth serum regularly—fortunately it's too expensive and time consuming to apply to the rest of the military or we wouldn't have any operatives—and there's no way one of us could pass."

"No way to lie at all?" As far as he knew, the UPP didn't have anything like that…they had machines that could determine if someone was lying, but no way to force the truth out of them.

"You can not answer, but that pretty much confirms guilt."

Harlan sighed. "So we're back to not knowing how many Spung are onboard, and we probably shouldn't think about sending one of your friends out to ask someone." And if there were more Spung wandering around the Christa, it's possible that they captured Commander Goddard.

"That's pretty accurate."

"Should we take those two out now?"

"If you can think of a way to do it quietly—the last thing we need is for them to call in reinforcements."


End file.
